Davis police chief shares update nearly a week after 3 shot on Picnic Day
Davis Police Chief Todd Henry shared an update on the investigation six days after three people were shot at a crowded park event. The shooting happened at Community Park around 3 p.m. Saturday. Two teenagers and a 24-year-old were struck by gunfire, but are expected to recover. The shooting happened on UC Davis Picnic Day, an annual gathering for the university. While the shooting occurred off campus, and was not sponsored by the university, it was organized by a fraternity and drew hundreds to the park."Right now, our working theory is that this was related to a targeted event, as far as the shooting is concerned, it wasn't a random act," Henry told KCRA 3 on Friday. Questions around safety during Picnic Day events linger throughout the city. Picnic Day brings in about 70,000 people, more than the city's population, all looking for ways to enjoy the event on campus and off. For years, police have noticed a number of problems.Henry told KCRA that the event was not permitted and that the fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma, never applied for it."The event was sponsored by a local fraternity that's associated with the university. Very often, there's two types of Picnic Days. on campus, and then there's Picnic Day in the city, and those are unsanctioned events. They kind of focus around drinking and we do have a substantial number of issues when it comes to that component of Picnic Day," Henry said.While the fraternity is not associated with the shooting, Chief Henry said gatherings like this one could have brought more people to the park."Our information that we have would indicate these individuals are not from Davis, and so they came into Davis because of all the parties that occur within the city during Picnic Day," Henry said.On Tuesday, city leaders voted to create a subcommittee that will review permit policies in light of the shooting. The city will also be working with university officials and the police department on planning and safety measures.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
