It was bound to happen and I guess this year — with all the stress, strain and divisiveness in our society — was the year an actual shooting took place during Picnic Day in Davis.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, Davis police were still trying to put together what happened when three people were shot Saturday afternoon at Davis Community Park, which is in the 200 block of East 14th St., around 3 p.m. As of this writing on Tuesday afternoon, the suspect was at large and the motivation for the shooting hasn’t been reported.

All three shooting victims were taken to a Davis local hospital after being treated on scene by medical personnel. Their conditions had not been reported.

Lt. Dan Beckwith, a spokesman with Davis Police, said two of the victims are teens and the third is 24 years old.

Beckwith was quoted as saying, “In my 18 years, we’ve never had anything like this. We do our best to keep this community safe during this event. It’s supposed to be a fun event for families, and I think it still is.”

Thank goodness it wasn’t on the UCD campus itself, where there were thousands of students, parents and city residents.

Crime is nothing new on Picnic Day, but never to this degree. Considering as many as 80,000 people show up for the event we shouldn’t be surprised something terrible was going to happen.

I did some research and found the last major incident was in 2017 when a fight broke out between Davis police and passers-by. There were five people arrested (known as the “Picnic Day 5”). The incident occurred at the intersection of Russell Boulevard and College Park between involving a crowd and three police officers who were in plain clothes and got out of an unmarked van to control the crowd.

During preliminary hearings, one side argued the members of the public defended themselves during the melee and wouldn’t have fought back if officers had been clearly identified.

Throughout a five-day span of hearings, video evidence presented in the courtroom supported both arguments depending on different vantage points.

Most of the people involved in the fight got probation because of their ages and lack of any criminal records.

Going back to 2012, there were at least 51 people arrested and around 100 tickets issued for various infractions, most of which involved drunkenness.

In 2011, UC Davis alumni Scott Heinig, 22, died after falling and receiving a serious head injury at an off-campus party after on-campus activities had ended. Heinig had been punched by a friend and fallen off a ledge. No charges were ever filed.

Police issued 207 citations in 2011, more than three times the number issued in 2010, which was reported as 60. Eighty-three citations were doled out in 2009, 101 in 2008 and 98 in 2007. Most were for excessive drinking.

And in 2010, Steven Hector Martinez, a gang member from Woodland, was sentenced to 31 years to life in prison for a single count of battery with serious bodily injury in a case dating back to Picnic Day 2009.

In terms of last weekend’s shooting, it’s still too soon to know whether Picnic Day drinking or something else caused it.

I’m not advocating the end of Picnic Day. I’ve always enjoyed myself at the event, whether it was watching the parade or going on campus to see what students were up to.

But it’s worth asking whether Picnic Day has become a “Party Day,” where people deliberately become drunk and disorderly. And it’s worth asking if there is anything anyone can do to prevent future violence.

Jim Smith is the former editor of The Daily Democrat, retiring in 2021 after a 27-year career at the paper.