Susano Archuleta arrived with friends at a north Stockton birthday party on Nov. 29 to celebrate a toddler’s second birthday, his family told CBS News in Sacramento.
But the 21-year-old was caught in a barrage of bullets that peppered the banquet hall on Lucile Avenue in one of the city’s deadliest shootings in recent history.
Between 100 and 150 people were inside the event space when the shooting erupted, San Joaquin County’s sheriff’s officials said. The violence broke out shortly before 6 p.m., just as guests were preparing to cut the birthday cake, the child’s family said.
In addition to Archuleta, three children — two 8-year-old cousins and a 14-year-old student-athlete — also were killed, and at least 13 others were wounded. The attack has drawn local and national attention as authorities continue to search for suspects.
For Archuleta’s family, the scale of the tragedy feels almost impossible to comprehend.
His brother Emmanuel Lopez said Archuleta was shot in the neck and died at the scene, according to reporting from the Los Angeles Times.
Patricia Flores, Archuleta’s aunt, told CBS that he had been at the event simply to support friends.
She said the family’s grief is “devastating,” adding that they learned of Archuleta’s death hours after the mass shooting.
His father and stepmother said they had heard accounts from the party that when bullets began to fly around the hall, Archuleta tried to protect others around him.
According to reporting from KCRA, he tried to move several children and his girlfriend into a closet to shield them. That detail is one of the only glimpses of Archuleta’s final moments, and of the chaos inside the banquet hall as party guests scrambled for safety.
Investigators have not released any information about a motive in the shooting, and no arrests have been announced. Sheriff’s officials say the investigation remains active, and they continue to urge witnesses or anyone with information to contact authorities, with reward offers ascending to $130,000.
Assertions both online and by local leaders have suggested that the shooting was gang-related. Court documents indicate that “several known gang members” were among the guests at the party.
But while Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi described the attack as “group gang violence,” San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow — the lead investigator — has cautioned that the motive has not been confirmed and said it is too early to determine whether the deadly shooting involved gangs.
“That may be accurate. It may not. We don’t know,” Withrow said in an interview with Stocktonia on Wednesday. “We really won’t know the guy’s motivation until we get him.”
In the days since the massacre, community members have held vigils, offered prayers and left flowers near the scene. The loss of three children has shaken residents across the city, while the death of Archuleta — a young adult whose family says he simply showed up to celebrate with friends — has left loved ones searching for answers.
Professional boxer Gabe Flores Jr., a Stockton native who went to Chavez High School, told Stocktonia that Archuleta was his cousin. Flores fights Joe Cordina for the WBO International Lightweight title at Adventist Health Arena in Stockton on Dec. 13. His father and manager, Gabe Flores Sr., said 100% of proceeds from tickets sold through Monday will be donated to the victims’ families.
“I just try to do my part in the community,” Flores Jr. told KCRA. “I was born and raised in Stockton. I like to say it made me who I am today. That’s why I wanted to participate.”
Flores Sr. called the situation “tragic.”
“It’s a horrible thing for the city and those families,” he said.
The Archuleta family told CBS they are planning funeral services and supporting one another as they navigate an incomprehensible grief. They said Archuleta had no connection to the violence that unfolded around him and certainly didn’t know the attackers.
“Why would somebody want to do that? If you’re angry, why would you take it out on innocent people who have nothing to do with whatever problem it is that got you to do something like this?” Patricia Flores said to CBS. “He is going to be missed. He will definitely be missed.”
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