Employees who regularly walk through the area, including nearby parking garages, say they often feel on edge.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento police are searching for a suspect after a double stabbing in the Downtown Commons area left one man dead Monday night, raising renewed concerns among downtown business owners and employees about safety in the area.
Officers responded just before 9:45 p.m. to the 400 block of K Street after receiving reports of a stabbing, police said. When they arrived, they found a man and a woman who had both been stabbed. Both were taken to a hospital, but despite lifesaving efforts, the man was pronounced dead.
Investigators are reviewing surveillance video and interviewing witnesses as they work to identify the person responsible. No suspect information has been released, and authorities have not provided an update on the woman’s condition.
The violence has left some who work nearby uneasy.
“It’s horrible. We should be able to be in our community and enjoy the businesses that we have safely,” Alicia, a downtown Sacramento employee, said.
Employees who regularly walk through the area, including nearby parking garages, say they often feel on edge.
“We have to go down to the parking garage every day when we go to work from our office,” Jetty Njerikamau, a downtown Sacramento employee, said. “I partially don’t feel safe most of the time. It’s not, nothing ever happens, but I always have that hesitation just because, you know, we have random people that may be questionable that are down there at times.”
Peter Navin, who opened his custom tailor shop, Navin’s, in Downtown Plaza about 45 years ago, said the latest killing is especially difficult.
“I don’t know how to expose this to my family and let them know that there was another killing again,” Navin said.
Navin said he recently signed a new lease about a month ago and had once hoped to see the area thrive.
“The previous mayor who brought in the Kings over here, and the former basketball player, I even went for a walk with him, and he says, I assure you we will make this like the capital center of the city, like the finance center,” Navin said. “I’m still waiting.”
Tuesday morning, Navin said an employee called him after arriving at the shop and finding it taped off following the stabbing.
He also recalled an overnight standoff about two years ago involving a man with a gun on the roof of a parking garage next to his business.
Sacramento police say there is a new substation at 320 K Street. Navin said he hopes having a police station next door will help.
“But when I hear something like this, I’m afraid my family would be after me to move from here because they don’t want me to be a victim next time,” Navin said.
Others say they want to see more done to prevent violence.
“Looking at the data and looking at like are we really meeting the moment the way that we should be and based on like when this is happening, who it’s happening to, and how this is happening, because I think for the most part we can feel the presence of policing folks but it seems like there’s a gap in when this is happening,” Alicia said.
Anyone with information is urged to call Sacramento police or Crime Stoppers.
Two stabbed at the Downtown Commons, no suspect known according to police
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