Families share grief and call for change at Sacramento’s National Night Out
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Families affected by gun violence used National Night Out in downtown Sacramento to remember their loved ones, call for change, and encourage the community to help prevent further violence.
Law enforcement agencies traditionally use National Night Out to build relationships with the communities they serve. For the families who gathered, however, the event was about more than public safety outreach. It offered an opportunity to discuss how gun violence affects entire communities and the role residents can play in stopping it.
For Shelly Tevis, losing her son, Colby Tevis, was not one painful moment in time.
“He dies every day when I wake up,” Tevis said.
Colby was killed in a shooting in Midtown Sacramento in September 2024. Sacramento police arrested a man in connection with the shooting about a month later.
Tevis said the grief is a weight her family will carry forever.
“People can have compassion and sympathy, but unless you lost a child, and especially to gun violence, there’s really — you can’t convey that in words,” she said.
Tevis brought photographs of Colby to a National Night Out event outside The Mix Downtown near 16th and L Streets, hoping people would remember his life and his smile rather than only the circumstances of his death.
“You see his pictures, his smile,” Tevis said. “Everything you see here, this is real. This is Colby.”
Tevis said her family has been given “a lifetime sentence of grief.”
Jennifer Redmond said she has lived with similar pain for six years. Her 19-year-old daughter, Sarayah Jade Redmond, was killed in a shooting at a Natomas apartment complex in 2020.
“Sarayah Jade should be here,” Redmond said. “Sarayah Jade matters.”
Redmond said the loss has affected multiple generations of her family.
“It’s a living nightmare for me,” she said. “It’s a living nightmare to watch my sons go every day without their sister. It’s a nightmare for my grandsons.”
Redmond said parents of gun violence victims must speak for children who are no longer able to advocate for themselves.
“It’s our job as a parent to speak for the voiceless,” she said. “They were here, they existed, and they matter.”
Sacramento City Councilmember Lisa Kaplan said victims’ families should not have to carry the responsibility of preventing violence alone.
“The city of Sacramento is doing better in addressing gun violence, but one incident is still one too many,” Kaplan said. “It’s really not an us versus them, or ‘I can solve it.’ The only thing we can really say is we have to solve it.”
Sacramento Police Capt. Robert Young said National Night Out helps create the trust and cooperation necessary to make communities safer.
“Public safety starts with trust and transparency,” Young said. “If we don’t have those relationships, we’re going to lack the two fundamental principles to have great public safety.”
Young said outreach events can help establish a stronger foundation for addressing crime and reducing violence.
“I think we have a greater chance of lowering gun violence by working together,” he said.
For Tevis and Redmond, public safety is no longer an abstract promise. It represents the future their children were denied and the future they are trying to protect for other families.
Both mothers said they are still seeking justice in their children’s killings, with additional court proceedings expected later this year.
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