On Friday afternoon, September 19, gunfire shattered the front windows of Sacramento’s ABC10 television station.
Around 1:30 p.m., someone in a passing car fired several rounds into the lobby of the station’s Broadway headquarters.
At least three bullets pierced the glass. Thankfully, no employees were injured, though staff were inside when the shots rang out.
By Saturday, September 20, police had arrested 64-year-old Anibal Hernandez-Santana at a home in the River Park neighborhood.
NEW: The man who shot up the ABC affiliate in Sacramento following the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel, has been identified as Anibal Hernandez-Santana.
An X account that appears to belong to Hernandez-Santana is full of anti-Trump posts, as reported by Variety.
The man, 64,… pic.twitter.com/4fZmyLZCkR
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 20, 2025
He faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon, shooting into an occupied building, and negligent discharge of a firearm.
The FBI joined the case, and investigators are still working through the motive.
Hernandez-Santana’s Background Raises Serious Questions
The timing of the shooting raised eyebrows. Just one day earlier, about 15 people had protested outside ABC10.
They were upset that ABC had suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Kimmel mocked the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.
Kimmel suggested, falsely, that the killer was a MAGA supporter.
The protest ended without violence – but the very next day, bullets flew.
Hernandez-Santana, the man arrested, wasn’t just some random guy with a gun.
He was a former legislative director for the California Federation of Teachers.
His social media account was filled with anti-Trump rants and political commentary from the left.
That’s a big deal. It shows this wasn’t just an “attack on democracy,” as Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly claimed.
It may have been another example of left-wing rage boiling over.
How the Media Is Framing It
Mainstream outlets like NBC News and The Guardian called it an “attack on journalists” and stressed there’s no confirmed political motive.
USA Today mentioned the protest but downplayed the timing, pointing out that demonstrators had already gone home before the shooting.
What they didn’t focus on was Hernandez-Santana’s background, his political leanings, or his ties to a powerful union.
Now, imagine how it would be covered if this man had worked for the NRA and had a social media feed blasting Democrats.
Bail Release Sparks Outrage on the Right
From Charlie Kirk’s assassination to this shooting, conservative say the left has normalized hate and violence against people on the right.
RedState blasted California’s soft-on-crime laws after Hernandez-Santana was released on bail, only to be picked up again on federal charges.
That’s right; he was out on bail almost immediately, even after shooting into a newsroom with no regard for the people in the building.
Federal agents later stepped in and took custody, charging him under 47 U.S.C. § 333 for interfering with licensed broadcast operations.
This back-and-forth shows how broken California’s bail system really is.
California’s Chaos Doesn’t Stay in California
It’s easy to shrug this off as “California chaos”, but Nevada isn’t immune. We’ve seen political protests spill over into violence here too.
The same toxic mix of left-wing extremism and weak legal consequences is creeping across state lines.
If a man in Sacramento can fire shots into a news station lobby and walk out on bail the next day, what message does that send?
It tells would-be attackers that there’s little to lose.
No One Killed This Time – But What About Next Time?
Nobody was killed in Sacramento. But that isn’t the point.
A left-leaning activist with a powerful union background and a social media trail of anti-Trump posts allegedly shot up a news station – just one day after protests over Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension for mocking Charlie Kirk’s murder.
He was released on bail, only to be hauled back by federal agents.
Meanwhile, the media frames it as “unclear motive” and “attack on democracy,” carefully avoiding the political dots that conservatives see as obvious.
This double standard is why trust in the press is collapsing.
According to Gallup, only 32 percent of Americans say they trust the media “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
That’s less than half of what it was in the 1970s.
The ABC10 shooting is part of a story the grows ever-longer: left-wing extremism, media bias, weak bail laws, and a culture that excuses violence when it comes from the left.
And unless leaders get serious about enforcing the law and calling out the hate, it’s only a matter of time before the next bullet finds its mark.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
