Host of birthday party in Stockton, California says she mistook gunfire for balloons popping

Patrice Williams thought she first heard the sound of inflated balloons as she gathered with friends and family for cake to celebrate her daughter turning two. But the loud sounds ringing in the banquet hall were actually gunshots, which ultimately took the lives of four guests at the birthday party he threw.

“I don’t know what happened, and I’m very shocked and lost,” Ms. Williams told The Associated Press.

Three boys, ages eight, nine and 14, and a 21-year-old man were killed in a mass shooting in Stockton, California, over the weekend, authorities said. Eleven others were injured, one seriously, in the shooting where about 100 guests were celebrating.

Ms Williams’s other daughter, a cousin and three of her friends were among those gathered around the cake at the party, they told the AP.

Others were about to sit down to dinner in the banquet hall when the shooter – or shooters – entered with an automatic weapon. Officials believe the attack may have been targeted.

The shooting appeared to have started inside the venue before moving onto the street and it was unclear whether anyone returned fire, authorities have said.

Ms Williams said she did not see the attacker and did not know who would commit such violence.

“They deserve to be in jail. They deserve to go to hell,” he told the AP. “I’m sorry, but I…this is not respectful. This is a children’s party.”

Later that night, sirens from ambulances and police cars continued to wail through thick fog, keeping residents awake as police searched for the perpetrators and clues about the crime, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Once the site of a celebration — filled with rainbow-colored balloons and swan-shaped bounce houses — now a crime scene is being investigated by the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Department, the FBI and other federal agencies.

Located about 80 miles (130 km) east of San Francisco, Stockton is seeing an increase in violent crime, including murder, rape, assault and robbery. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, the broader San Joaquin Valley, which also includes smaller neighboring cities, had the highest violent crime rates in the state in 2023.

San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow said authorities were “confident this was not a random act”.

They believe multiple shooters were involved, who are still at large. While the city of 320,000 remains in the grip of fear, officials have said there is no threat to the community.

They are calling on the public to provide tips and videos and to dispel rumors related to the shooting. They are also offering an increasing reward for information.

Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi said in a statement that the criminals would be caught and “you will never see the outside of a jail cell again”.

He said, “If you have even the slightest glimpse of humanity left in you, change yourself immediately.”

While the mayor suspects the motive was gang violence, Sheriff Withrow says it is too early to tell.

On Sunday evening he said the community needs to come forward and show that we will not tolerate this type of behaviour, when people break into homes and kill children. Come forward and tell us what you know.

On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered flags at half-staff at the state Capitol in Sacramento, “to honor the children we lost and to stand with the grieving community”.

Although the names of the victims have not been officially released, family and friends have begun to identify some of them online and in the media.

Maya Lupyan, “the friendliest eight-year-old you’ve ever met”, was identified by her sister Yesenia on a crowdfunding site as one of the dead.

She excelled in academics and extracurricular activities, had a purple belt in karate and loved dancing, singing, and drawing.

Her sister wrote, “Maya was the light in everyone’s life, the sweetest soul.”

The slain 14-year-old boy has been identified by his family as Amari Peterson, a “bright, beloved and promising young soul whose life was taken too soon by a senseless act of violence”.

From the neighboring city of Modesto, he was an American football and basketball player and planned to attend college, his family wrote on a crowdfunding website asking for donations for his funeral.

“He was just being a kid at a children’s party,” she wrote. “No family should ever have to go from planning a birthday to planning a funeral.”

The boy’s father, Patrick Peterson, told the Sacramento Bee that he “can’t live with the fact that I couldn’t save my son”. Her nine-year-old daughter was also injured, she said, but escaped unharmed by running out the back door and climbing over a fence.

One man, Emmanuel Lopez, told the LA Times that his brother, Susano Archuleta, 21, who was killed, said he was hit in the neck and died at the scene.

Mr. Lopez described Mr. Archuleta as “full of life and energy,” adding, “I’m very upset right now. My brother died in my arms.”

According to the LA Times, family members, some of whom were still wearing party clothes, returned to the tragic scene the next day to reclaim their cars and property. They declined to share their names out of fear that the shooter or shooters would find them and harm them.

“Who would think something like this would happen at a child’s birthday party,” said a woman who identified herself as the birthday girl’s aunt. “This doesn’t make any sense. This is a mass murder. Senseless. Insane. Find the people who did it.”

The event space — formerly a children’s theater that is also used for content creation and a recording studio — is unlikely to reopen anytime soon, if at all, its tenant Willie Collins told the Sacramento Bee.

“There are no businesses there anymore,” Mr Collins said. “It’s a monument.”