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Tragedy strikes Stockton birthday celebration
Four people, including three children aged eight, nine, and 14, were killed when gunfire erupted at a two-year-old's birthday party in Stockton, California, over the weekend. Authorities report that eleven others were wounded, one critically, in what they suspect was a targeted attack.
The attack unfolds
Patrice Williams, the mother of the birthday girl, recounted the horror to the Associated Press. What she initially mistook for popping balloons were gunshots that tore through the banquet hall where about 100 guests had gathered for cake and dinner. The shooting began inside the venue before spilling onto the street, though it remains unclear whether anyone returned fire.
Williams told the AP she never saw the attacker and has no idea who would commit such violence. "They deserve to be in jail. They deserve to go to hell," she said. "It's not respectable. It's a kids' party."
Victims and community response
Among the dead were Maya Lupian, an eight-year-old described by her sister as "the light in everyone's life," who held a purple belt in karate and loved dancing and singing. Fourteen-year-old Amari Peterson, a football and basketball player from Modesto with college aspirations, was also killed. His family wrote on a crowdfunding site that "no family should ever go from planning birthdays to planning funerals." The third child victim was nine years old. A 21-year-old man, identified by his brother as Susano Archuleta, died at the scene after being struck in the neck.
Amari's father, Patrick Peterson, told the Sacramento Bee that his nine-year-old daughter escaped by climbing a fence after fleeing through a back door. "I can't live with the fact that I couldn't save my son," he said.
Investigation and public appeal
San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow stated that authorities believe the attack was not random and that multiple suspects may still be at large. While officials have assured the public there is no ongoing threat, the city of 320,000 remains gripped by fear. A reward is being offered for information, and investigators are urging witnesses to come forward with tips or video footage.
Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi vowed that the perpetrators would be caught and "never see the outside of a prison cell again." She appealed to anyone with information to turn themselves in, saying, "If there is even a flicker of humanity left in you, turn yourselves in immediately."
"We will not put up with this type of behaviour, when people will just walk in and kill children,"
Sheriff Patrick Withrow
Broader context and mourning
Stockton, located about 80 miles east of San Francisco, has seen a rise in violent crime, including homicide, rape, assault, and robbery. The San Joaquin Valley, which includes the city, had the highest violent crime rate in California in 2023, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered flags at the state capitol in Sacramento to be flown at half-staff on Monday "to honour the children we mourn and stand with the community as it grieves."
The once-festive event space, decorated with rainbow balloons and a swan-shaped bounce house, is now a crime scene under investigation by the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department, the FBI, and other federal agencies. Willie Collins, the venue's tenant, told the Sacramento Bee that the location, formerly a children's theatre, is unlikely to reopen. "There's no business there anymore," he said. "It's a memorial."
Families demand justice
Relatives of the victims, some still in their party clothes, returned to the scene the following day to retrieve their belongings but declined to speak publicly out of fear of retaliation. A woman who identified herself as the birthday girl's great-aunt told reporters, "Who thinks this would happen at a baby birthday party? This don't make no sense. A mass killing is what this was. Senseless. Crazy. Find the people who did it."
