A viral video of an Amazon Prime truck appearing to join a Sacramento sideshow resurfaced on social media this weekend on a popular account documenting crime in the capital region.
Amazon, which confirmed the driver was fired by an employer who contracts with the company, said the actions depicted in the video were unacceptable.
The incident was not related to deadly shootings early Sunday at a pair of separate street takeover events ; the viral posts were first posted at least two weeks earlier.
But the footage garnered more than 400,000 views as of Tuesday, drawing even more attention to sideshow activity in the area as residents grappled with the fatal shootings.
Social media account “916today” — which has about 100,000 followers across Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook — posted Saturday a video titled “Amazon Prime Truck Joins A Sideshow In Sacramento” across a majority of its social media pages. By Tuesday afternoon, the footage had gained more than 400,000 views across platforms and went viral as news of the two deadly sideshows also spread.
Activities at sideshows are not just limited to people performing stunts. Law enforcement officials say sideshows provide breeding grounds for illicit activity, a point most vividly illustrated when two people were killed Sunday in different Sacramento neighborhoods. Police connected both incidents to sideshows.
The first incident happened about 2 a.m. in the 2400 block of Seamist Drive and Sandcastle Way in South Natomas. A man died from his wounds. He was identified as Joshua Brown, 20, by the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office.
Another street takeover happened just about an hour later in which Kevin Waterman, 26, died after a shooting broke out on Kelton Way and Main Avenue in Northpointe. A second man was also shot and is expected to survive.
No arrests had been made in either homicide as of Tuesday evening, police said.
A truck driver was terminated from their position with a third-party company that contracts with Amazon in connection to the video’s events, according to a spokesman.
“The actions depicted in this video are unsafe and entirely unacceptable,” said Amazon spokesman Sam Stephenson in a statement. “The driver has been terminated by their employer and they’re not eligible to deliver on our behalf in the future.”
Video shows a tractor-trailer, painted with the blue Amazon Prime logo, entering an intersection and making a wide circle among throngs of jubilant observers. People clapped and cheered as the truck completed a loop and exited the intersection. Several people climbed onto the truck’s rear as blue and green lasers flashed across the truck.
Similar footage, filmed from a different angle, was also posted by an account named “shotbytrigz” on Sept. 9 that appears to capture the same events.
Stephenson did not respond when asked where the viral incident took place.
The videos appear to show Amazon warehouse buildings, matching the style and shape of those near Sacramento International Airport, in the background.
The Sacramento Bee determined, based on roadway and building layouts, that it occurred at the intersection of Allbaugh Drive and Metro Air Parkway, near Amazon’s SCA5 warehouse. The California Highway Patrol’s Valley Division in a mid-August social media post said a sideshow took place at that location.
And the Google Maps street view function shows dozens of tire marks in the middle of that intersection, including in archived versions of the map dating back to at least 2022, suggesting it has been a hot spot for spinning vehicles for years.
How do sideshows impact Sacramento today?
The activity around reported sideshows has slowed down in the past year compared to previous years, according to a Sacramento police spokeswoman.
In previous years, authorities in different local jurisdictions reported a consistent need to respond. In 2019, the California Highway Patrol said street takeovers hit north Sacramento County nearly every weekend, according to The Sacramento Bee’s previous reporting .
The culture of sideshows has existed since the 1980s, but its prominence reentered the public sphere around the time of the pandemic. Hordes of people — at times swelling to hundreds — blocked off intersections and cheered as drivers performed burnouts. Social media harbored locations of groups traveling to different cities to perform stunts.
But residents’ consternation with the street takeovers grew after being blocked repeatedly from public roads. Authorities have collected illegal guns, fireworks and drugs when attempting to arrest participants.
Officer Allison Smith, a spokeswoman with the Sacramento Police Department, did not immediately have access to the numbers of sideshows police have responded to this year.
But she added that investigators have changed how they prepare to crackdown on street takeovers. Officers will coordinate with the county and use their real-time crime center and helicopters. The real-time crime center, which opened in 2016, accesses live footage to police’s cameras placed on intersections to track incidents.
In the past, CHP officers had to leave their assignments to respond to hundreds of people congregating in roads. .
“It’s a huge drain on resources,” Smith said of sideshows’ impact on departments.
Sacramento police will monitor social media to see when a large sideshow will hit an area. Officers could have to change their assignments or plan to work longer hours when a large group descends on roads, Smith said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed bills that crack down on sideshows by giving California authorities the power to seize vehicles of drivers engaged in illegal activities.
Here are some notable sideshows that happened this past year, according to The Bee’s reporting.
▪ A man was arrested Sept. 2 on suspicion of reckless driving following a street takeover at Del Mar Way and Arcade Boulevard.
▪ About 100 vehicles took over Highway 244 at Auburn Boulevard and led the CHP to issue 23 citations in July.
▪ About 70 vehicles converged on several intersection throughout the county, mostly in the North Sacramento area, in February. Police arrested four people, issued 36 citations and impounded eight vehicles.
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