At least four people were killed and 10 wounded in a shooting at a family gathering Saturday in Stockton, California, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said.
The shooting occurred around 6 p.m. on the 1900 block of Lucille Avenue, the sheriff’s office said, which contains a children’s theater, a Dairy Queen and a martial arts academy.
Stockton is a city of roughly 320,000 people in California’s Central Valley, about 80 miles east of San Francisco.
“Early indications suggest this may be a targeted incident, and investigators are exploring all possibilities,” the sheriff’s office said late Saturday. “Detectives are actively working to determine the circumstances leading up to this tragedy.”
Christina Fugazi, Stockton’s mayor, said children and adults were among those killed.
“Tonight, heaven is a little bigger with the individuals — children and adults — that unfortunately did not make it. Stockton is better than this,” she said in a live broadcast, adding, “Families should be together instead of at the hospital standing next to their loved one, praying that they survive.”
The shooting happened at a banquet hall during a family gathering on Thornton Road, Heather Brent, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said in a live broadcast.
“This is an unfathomable, unfathomable incident,” she said. “We need to find the suspect, and we need to hold them accountable.”
Of the wounded, two adults and a 9-year-old were taken to St. Joseph’s Medical Center, a spokesperson for the hospital said. One of the patients was undergoing surgery Saturday night, and the child was “in fair condition,” the hospital said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has been briefed on the shooting, his office said in a social media post, calling the incident “horrific.”
Jason Lee, vice mayor of Stockton, said that the shooting took place at a “child’s birthday party” and that he is “devastated and angry.”
“Tonight, I’m sending my thoughts, prayers, and love to the families who are hurting, to the children who witnessed this trauma, and to everyone across our city who feels this pain,” he said in a social media post.
The post 4 killed, 10 injured in shooting at family celebration in California appeared first on Washington Post.
