Crime & Justice

Third Suspect Arrested for Machine Gun in Sacramento Mass Shooting, Cops Say

TAKE THREE

Daviyonne Dawson, 31, was charged for allegedly having a machine gun, but cops don’t believe it was used in the massacre that left six dead.

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Police in Sacramento, California, on Tuesday announced the arrest of a third man in connection with the mass shooting that killed six people and injured 12 more over the weekend.

Daviyonne Dawson, 31, was picked up late Monday on charges of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, the Sacramento PD announced in a press release. Dawson, police officials said, was seen carrying a gun in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. However, detectives “do not believe that this gun was used in the shooting,” the statement said.

No further information about Dawson was released.

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Earlier in the day, cops said they had arrested 27-year-old Smiley Martin on gun charges.

Police said he was the brother of Dandrae Martin, a 26-year-old arrested a day earlier, and had been seriously injured in the incident himself. Neither was charged with murder, but Smiley Martin was accused of possession of a machine gun, while his brother faced charges of assault with a firearm and being a prohibited person in possession of one.

Police said at least three buildings and three vehicles were damaged in the incident, which took place around 2 a.m. Sunday as bars were letting out for the night, and involved multiple shooters. Law enforcement sources previously told Vice and the Sacramento Bee that an automatic weapon—perhaps including a handgun converted to fire like a machine gun—may have been used in the shooting.

The shooting occurred around the same time as a fight outside a local bar, video posted on social media suggests, though police have been cagey about whether the two were directly related.

The local coroner identified the slain victims as Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21; Johntaya Alexander, 21; Devazia Turner, 29; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; Sergio Harris, 38; and Melinda Davis, 57.

The tragedy was not the first mass shooting to strike the California capital this year. In February, a 39-year-old man on a supervised visit to a church with his three daughters and a chaperone shot and killed all of them before killing himself.

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