Campus Alert Archive
UC Davis

Three Shot at Community Park: UC Davis's Picnic Day Marred by an Off-Campus Shooting

CAshootingemergency notificationhigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

On April 12, 2025—UC Davis's annual Picnic Day) celebration—a shooting at Community Park on 14th Street in the City of Davis left three people with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds during a UC Davis student-organization-sponsored gathering. UC Davis issued an Aggie Alert directing the community to avoid the area. The suspect remained at large as of the case's last update.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
3
Institution
University of California, Davis
Public R1 · CA
~40,000 studentsEverbridge / NixleAggie Alert / WarnMe
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimThe California Aggie direct quote of the 3:29 p.m. PDT Aggie Alert85 chars
Avoid the area of 14th St/Community Park in the City of Davis due to police activity.
Verbatim text directly quoted by The California Aggie: at 3:29 p.m., UC Davis sent an Aggie Alert telling the public to 'avoid the area of 14th St/Community Park in the City of Davis due to police activity'
Issued during UC Davis Picnic Day, the campus's largest annual public event with over 75,000 attendees
Community Park is approximately 1 mile north of the UC Davis campus core (201 E. 14th St); the gathering was sponsored by a UC Davis campus organization (Phi Beta Sigma Davis chapter)
Officers responded to gunshots at the park at 2:58 p.m., making the alert-to-report interval approximately 31 minutes
ALL CLEARTwitter/X
Verified verbatimUC Davis official Twitter/X account quoting the follow-up Aggie Alert147 chars
An Aggie Alert has been issued stating that the city of Davis police department has announced that police activity in Community Park has concluded.
Posted by the official @ucdavis account relaying the follow-up Aggie Alert that the City of Davis Police Department had concluded police activity in Community Park
Frames the resolution as a city-police-led conclusion rather than a campus all-clear, reflecting the off-campus jurisdiction
All three victims survived; Picnic Day events continued the following day after additional security review
Context

Background

Picnic Day is UC Davis's signature annual celebration, dating back to 1909, and routinely draws crowds in excess of 75,000 to the campus and surrounding city. The April 12, 2025 shooting at Community Park on 14th Street occurred at a gathering organized by a UC Davis student organization, but on city property approximately 1.5 miles from the campus core. Three people, including two teenagers and a 24-year-old, sustained non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. UC Davis issued an Aggie Alert that emphasized the off-campus location and the absence of a campus threat, a balance that has become standard practice for incidents adjacent to college campuses. The shooting added to a difficult year for UC Davis, which had also seen the late 2023 Davis stabbings less than two years earlier and the August 21, 2025 erroneous active shooter alert later in the same year.
Analysis

Key Findings

Aggie Alert distinguished between 'police activity in the City of Davis' and 'threat to UC Davis campus,' a distinction not all campus alert systems make
Off-campus shooting during Picnic Day illustrates how signature campus events can extend Clery and notification responsibilities into city space
All three victims survived, but the event prompted security review for the second day of Picnic Day
Suspect at large as of last public update reflects the limits of campus law enforcement reach on off-campus incidents
Outcome
Three injured (two teenagers and a 24-year-old), all with non-life-threatening injuries. Suspect at large. Davis Police Department continues investigation.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Student Paper
    Three people shot following a shooting on Picnic Day (The Aggie)
    theaggie.org
  2. News
    Shooting in Davis leaves 3 injured (CapRadio)
    capradio.org
  3. Official
    Aggie Alert (UC Davis)
    ucdavis.edu
  4. Source
    Picnic Day (UC Davis) (Wikipedia)
    en.wikipedia.org
Tags
shootingoff-campusuc-systemcaliforniadavispicnic-dayaggie-alertcommunity-parknon-fatal
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion