When it came to food, Journey Rose Reotutar Guerrero wasn’t picky.
“She loved to try everything,” her aunt Marie Antoinette Aguon said Wednesday.
She loved to bake, but she had many other interests, Aguon said, adding that the 8-year-old reveled in arts and crafts, reading, school activities and shopping.
Journey Rose’s short life came to a tragic end Saturday night. She was among the four people shot to death while family and friends gathered to celebrate the birthday of a 2-year-old. Thirteen others were wounded in the attack that authorities say was “targeted.”
The third-grader at Commodore Stockton Skills School was gunned down alongside her cousin Maya Lupian, also age 8. The two were extremely close, the family said. Aguon said she thinks the giggly pair had gone to check out toys in the front of the Monkey Space banquet hall, where the party was being held on Lucile Avenue, when the shooting began.
Also killed in the attack were Amari Peterson, a 14-year-old Modesto student-athlete, and 21-year-old Susano Archuleta.
Journey Rose’s mother, Jackie Reotutar, wrote on a GoFundMe page she created that her daughter gravitated not only to baking, but also to gymnastics. She dreamed of being a cheerleader in high school and aspired to become a physician. She leaves behind her parents, an 18-year-old sister and two brothers, ages 10 and 15.
“Journey was always an inspiration for her family to do their best. She would always offer a helping hand to anyone she knew. She was a smart girl who loved trivia and solving math games,” her mother wrote.
Her love of learning was passed down from her mother. Reotutar is a teacher, Stockton Unified School District officials said. The district issued a statement in support of the family.
“We carry Journey’s family in our hearts as we grieve alongside them. We will continue to do everything we can to support them and our entire SUSD community,” district Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez said in a statement.
Journey Rose was especially embraced by her large extended family, which has roots that reach back to Guam. Aguon has embraced the role of matriarch: “Everybody calls me Grandma,” she said.
She chatted Wednesday inside their spacious home in south Stockton as a pan simmered on the stove behind her. Other family members popped in and out. Kids played at her feet.
A survivor of Saturday’s mass shooting herself, Aguon was emotional at times as she spoke about Journey Rose and her efforts to save kids — many of them family members — on that tragic night.
Aguon said she was with younger children playing in a bounce house at the rear of the banquet hall when she heard the first popping sounds. Like others, she initially thought the noise was balloons bursting or some other part of the birthday festivities. It was only when she heard the screams and yelling that she knew there was a threat.
She drew the children near and shielded them with her body in the bounce house. She said she never saw the assailants.
She, along with the rest of the family, remain in a state of shock. She alternates between deep sorrow and fond memories of loved ones lost, especially when it comes to Journey Rose.
Aguon said Journey Rose was a “girly girl.” She loved books, especially storybooks, and had a budding eye for fashion. She shared her affinity for reading — and baking — with her pal Maya, who held a placard in her third-grade photo saying she wanted to be a baker when she grew up.
“She was joyful and happy,” Aguon said, “a really great kid.”
Stopping by the house on a work break, Joseph Guerrero said his cousin Journey Rose looked up to her brothers and sister and was “a beautiful, smart little girl” and a “bright-minded child.”
“She would just bring smiles to your face … bring light to your day,” he said.
Stocktonia staff writer Cassie Dickman contributed to this report.
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