Two Dead Following Downtown Sacramento New Year's Eve Shooting

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - Sacramento police say two people were killed in a shooting that happened shortly after 9:30 p.m. tonight near 2nd and K St, at an event held to commemorate the new year. Approximately 35,000 people were in the area. The crowded gathering saw many people suddenly trying to determine what was taking place.

One witness told KCRA Channel 3 News that eight shots were clearly heard, and that the shots were not something they could easily have confused with fireworks.

A Sacramento Police helicopter kept an eye on the scene from the sky as police told the crowd that the gathering for the large scale fireworks event was being canceled.

Sacramento police confirm that two are dead, and three are being treated for injuries.

One witness told KCRA, "All of a sudden we heard gunshots, a guy went into a hookah shop and started shooting, and then he fired at people on the sidewalk". The same witness stated, "One man had a baby in a stroller and he threw the stroller with the baby it! Other parents were laying on the sidewalk on top of their children."

It happened apparently near where several Hark Krishna's were gathered. Apparently the armed man was taken into custody, but that is not clear.

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Tim is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu

In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.

Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tens of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide. You can write to Tim at this address: tim@salem-news.com. Visit Tim's Facebook page (facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter)