By Chelsea Phua, Bill Lindelof and Kim Minugh
kminugh@sacbee.com
The Sacramento County Coroner's Office has identified the two men killed in gunfire in Del Paso Heights last night as 27-year-old Anthony Lamar Barnett and 58-year-old Avery Sanders.
The condition of three other men shot in the Balsam Street driveway - ages 18, 29 and 31 - is unknown, said Sacramento police Sgt. Norm Leong.
The five men were shot during a driveby shooting about 10:40 p.m. Thursday night. As or early this afternoon, Sacramento police had not publcly identified any suspects, nor a possible motive.
The victims were in the driveway of a home in the 3900 block of Balsam Street about 10:40 p.m. Thursday when a white or gray sedan drove up and the shooting began, Leong said.
One man died at the scene and another was pronounced dead at Mercy San Juan Medical Center.
After the shooting, family members and friends of the men gather at the scene, which is off of Grand Avenue. Some were in tears, wailing and being comforted by others. Some demanded angrily that officers tell them who died. Some knelt and prayed out loud.
Bruce Sanders, who said the shooting took place at the house where he has lived with his mother since 1964, said his brother, Avery Sanders, was a truck driver visiting from Minnesota. The big rig Sanders' brother drove was parked in a lot across the street from the house.
It was not the first time that violence had been visited upon the family. Sanders also said that his nephew, Dennis Nelson, was killed in March in his home on Lindsay Avenue, also in Del Paso Heights.
A Bee online article on March 21 reported that Nelson, 33, was shot to death after an apparent argument in his home with two other men in their 20s. There have been no arrests in that killing and police released only a scant description of the two suspects.
"We just buried someone two months ago," said Vickie Sanders, who added that her 27-year-old son, Calvin Lynn, was also one of the victims and she was on her way to UC Davis to see him.
Vickie Sanders said the men had just returned home from watching the Los Angeles Lakers win the NBA finals when they were fired upon.
Janice Lewis said Barnett was her son-in-law. She said the couple has a 4-year-old daughter, and her son-in-law was a good father to his daughter and to his 6-year-old step-son, Lewis' grandson.
"They were thinking of signing up the boy for soccer," Lewis said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Alert at (916) 443-4357. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward up to $1,000.
Call The Bee's Chelsea Phua, (916) 321-1132, and follow her on Twitter at @Chelsea_Phua.
Photo captions: Top: An evidence tag marks a bullet hole in the windshield of a car invovlved in a drive-by shooting in Del Paso Heights on Friday. Two men were killed and three wounded in a drive-by on Balsam Street Thursday night. Bottom: Police investigators examine the scene of a drive-by shooting in Del Paso Heights on Friday. Photos by Randall Benton
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Five men shot, one fatally, in Del Paso Heights - June 18, 2010
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