\u2022 No homicide charges: Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho\u2019s office said the evidence against the student who shot Sledge did not establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, specifically citing self-defense law.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, a spokesperson for the DA\u2019s Office confirmed the 16-year-old who killed Sledge still faces one felony count of being a minor in possession of a handgun. Another teen who was with Sledge and was also arrested faces one felony charge of attempted robbery.<\/p>\n
Both teens were not identified by name because they are minors.<\/p>\n
![\"Sacramento](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776455711_791_SAC_2010_PK_20260410_SHOOTING.JPG\" "\\"SAC_2010_PK_20260410_SHOOTING.JPG\\"")
Sacramento police officers ride a BearCat armored vehicle as they search for a suspect at the Natomas Village apartments after a shooting at Natomas High School that left one student dead in Sacramento on Friday, April 10, 2026. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
\u2022 Investigation continues: Police said Tuesday that the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain under investigation.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Family\u2019s response: Sledge\u2019s mother, in a statement released through Sacramento nonprofit EMPACT, called him an honors student focused on academics. \u201cMy son\u2019s life did not deserve to be taken from us,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
\u2022 GoFundMe update: A GoFundMe created to help Sledge\u2019s family cover \u201cunexpected financial burdens\u201d<\/a> had raised $4,009 as of Thursday evening, up from about $2,000 earlier in the week, toward a $7,000 goal.<\/p>\n \u2022 School district\u2019s request: Natomas Unified Superintendent Robyn Castillo asked Sacramento\u2019s city manager to reinstate a contract<\/a> assigning three full-time police officers and a sergeant to Natomas schools. The city canceled the $2.1 million agreement in October due to police staffing shortages.<\/p>\n City spokesperson Jennifer Singer confirmed that the city manager is reviewing the district\u2019s request.<\/p>\n \u201cThe loss of life is heartbreaking, and any loss of life in our community is deeply felt,\u201d she wrote in a statement. \u201cThe city and police department are committed to working closely with our partners to evaluate this request, understand current needs and determine the most responsible path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Outgoing Police Chief Kathy Lester said the department still faces significant budget and staffing challenges \u2014 the same issues that led to the cancellation of the original contract.<\/p>\n \u2022 What the district has done: After the city canceled its school resource officer contract, the district expanded its Safe Schools Department, adding three positions to support each high school and provide coverage at other campuses as needed. The district also hired campus safety specialists to monitor perimeters and parking lots.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we recognize the difficult reality that no system can eliminate every risk, we continuously reevaluate and strengthen our processes and procedures as part of our commitment to the safety of our students and staff,\u201d a district news release reads.<\/p>\n \u2022 Controversy over school resource officers: School resource officers have been controversial, with critics questioning the effectiveness of on-campus law enforcement in preventing school shootings. Research has shown that school-based police have been only marginally effective in preventing some campus violence, while not preventing school shootings and contributing to disproportionate discipline of Black and disabled students.<\/p>\n This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with McClatchy Media\u2019s AI policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fatal shooting at Natomas High School has prompted district leaders to urge the city of Sacramento to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-273058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/img-26-04-14-85B6A.jpg\" "\\"img-26-04-14-85B6A.jpg\\"")
An image of a GoFundMe for De’Jon Sledge, who was killed in a shooting at Natomas High School on Friday, April 10, 2026. The family says the GoFundMe is to ease \u201cunexpected financial burdens\u201d in the wake of Sledge\u2019s death. GoFundMe <\/p>\n