STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Family members were getting ready to cut the cake at a toddler’s birthday party when the gunfire started inside a banquet hall packed with relatives and friends over the weekend in California.
“I actually thought it was my balloons popping. It was gunshots,” said Patrice Williams, the birthday girl’s mother.
Her daughter, who turned 2, was uninjured. But Williams told The Associated Press on Monday that her sister, a cousin and three of her friends were shot in the burst of gunfire Saturday evening in Stockton.
Three children ages 8, 9 and 14 and a 21-year-old were killed in the hall where at least 100 people were gathered, San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow said. Detectives believe the gunfire continued outside and there may have been multiple shooters.
Eleven people were wounded, and at least one is in critical condition, Withrow said. No one is in custody.
Williams said partygoers who had gathered around the cake dropped to the ground the moment the gunshots rang out.
“It was just unexpected. I don’t know what happened, and I’m just so shocked and lost,” Williams said. She expressed remorse for the mothers who lost their children.
Williams said she didn’t get a look at the shooter and has no idea who would commit violence at what was supposed to be a joyous event.
“They deserve to be in jail. They deserve to go to hell,” Williams said. “I’m sorry, but I just … it’s not respectable. It’s a kids’ party.”
The sheriff urged anyone with information to contact his office with tips, cellphone video or witness accounts.
“This is a time for our community to show that we will not put up with this type of behavior, when people will just walk in and kill children,” Withrow said Sunday evening. “And so if you know anything about this, you have to come forward and tell us what you know. If not, you just become complacent and think this is acceptable behavior.”
Sheriff’s spokesperson Heather Brent has said investigators believe it was a “targeted incident.” Officials did not elaborate on why authorities believe it was intentional or who might have been targeted. She said investigators would welcome any information, “even rumors.”
Stockton resident Carolyn Tahod, who didn’t know the victims, showed up Monday to place bouquets of flowers at a makeshift memorial with candles lit in honor of those who died.
“I’m just the average person that has a big heart, and I have grandkids,” she said. “I would be devastated if this were to happen in our family.”
Roscoe Brown, who said the party was in honor of his brother’s granddaughter, works for the city of Stockton’s Office of Violence Prevention. Brown was in Arizona when he learned about the shooting and drove straight to the scene. He said a niece and nephew were shot, and he knows several other victims. He didn’t have information about their conditions.
“Who would come and do that to some kids, you know?” Brown told AP after a Sunday afternoon vigil organized by faith leaders. “You can’t shoot up a party. That’s senseless. A kid’s party, at that.”
