STOCKTON — Stockton was reeling after a gunman entered a banquet hall where more than 100 people had gathered for a family event Saturday night and opened fire, killing three children and one adult and wounding 11 others.
The mass shooting left people running for their lives and prompted an intense manhunt for the gunman. Authorities asked the public for tips and surveillance footage, offering a $25,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest, but said there was no threat to the community.
The violence reverberated across Stockton, a Central Valley city of 300,200 that has struggled with violent crime but has worked hard to curb it in recent years.
“This is Thanksgiving weekend. This is when families come together,” said Mayor Christina Fugazi. “Stockton is better than this.”
At a news conference Sunday afternoon, the mayor broke into tears, saying of the slain children: “They should be writing their Christmas lists right now. … I can’t even begin to imagine what these families are going through.”
While officials have not disclosed a motive, they suggest gang violence was involved and said they had reached out to both state and federal officials for help, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sen. Adam Schiff.
Fugazi called the shooting an act of terrorism.
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The shooting occurred just before 6 p.m., when the sheriff’s office was flooded with 911 calls reporting a shooting, and saying children as young as 9 were bleeding, including a 15-year-old boy who was not breathing.
Deputies responded to the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue near a Dairy Queen and found shooting victims in the parking lot, and a large number of people panicked and screaming.
The sheriff’s preliminary investigation suggests the incident was a targeted attack, said public information officer Heather Brent. Investigators are still considering all possibilities, she said.
Witnesses described a lone gunman, 5-foot-6, wearing black pants, according to police dispatches.
Video from the aftermath shows a massive police response as both paramedics and bystanders tended to the wounded.
Priscilla Salas was at her boyfriend’s house behind the banquet hall Saturday night when they heard several rounds from a fully automatic weapon and then pops from a handgun.
“It was pandemonium,” she said.
Salas ran out of her house and saw ambulances converged on the scene, then watched in horror as people began to ferry out the bodies of children.
About 10 minutes after the shooting, family members of partygoers began converging on the scene looking for their children, according to a neighbor who asked not to be named. The neighbor said the party was for a 2-year-old. He heard people crying that their children could not be found as helicopters rattled windows.
A crime scene photographer documents the scene of a mass shooting on Sunday.
(Paul Kuroda / For The Times)
Speaking at the scene, Brent said deputies were still investigating whether multiple people fired guns during the attack.
Ambulances took some of the victims to the hospital, and others arrived on their own, including two men who walked into St. Joseph’s Medical Center with gunshot wounds.
On Sunday morning, the crime scene sprawled across several blocks as the region’s famous tule fog blanketed the city in gray.
So far this year, violence has slowed down in Stockton. A July report from Stocktonia found that homicides fell 34% in the first six months of 2025 compared to the same stretch last year, and solved cases increased. One factor could be the Stockton Crime Stoppers hotline, which paid out $44,000 in rewards following arrests last year.
Fugazi urged residents to call the hotline with anonymous tips about the shooter.
The city has still dealt with a handful of violent incidents in recent years. A serial killer terrorized the community from 2021 to 2022, and Fugazi referenced a previous mass shooting in her news conference in which three were killed and four were injured in a drive-by shooting near a school in 2015.
Aerial view of the scene of a mass shooting at a banquet hall in Stockton on Sunday.
(Paul Kuroda / For The Times)
“Unacceptable. And what happened tonight? Unacceptable,” she said.
Roughly 150 people gathered at a prayer vigil Sunday afternoon, huddling together and holding candles in the parking lot of a Jazzercise studio.
“We want to pray for the families and also for our city,” said Terry Saffold, pastor of Greater Maranatha Church of God in Christ. “Our hearts are hurting.”
“Tonight, my heart is heavy in a way that’s hard to put into words,” said Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee in a statement posted on Facebook. “I am in contact with staff and public safety officials to understand exactly what happened, and I will be pushing for answers.”
“Guns don’t solve anything especially at a child’s birthday party!” Lynn Carver wrote on social media.
“This news is so heartbreaking. Prayers for these families!” Dominique Williams wrote.
“I truly wish our community could go back to the days where…crime wasn’t like how it is now,” Martice Lee-Rodriguez wrote.
Gov. Newsom’s office noted on social media that the state Office of Emergency Services was monitoring the “evolving situation and coordinating with local law enforcement.”
Multiple law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigation, including the FBI. The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department is leading the case.