Editor’s note: This story includes graphic details about the scene of a mass shooting in Stockton that left four people dead, three of them children, and wounded at least 11 more.
More than 100 people had gathered Saturday at a banquet hall in north Stockton for a birthday party for Teresa Spivey’s 2-year-old great-granddaughter.
Shortly before 6 p.m., it was time to cut the cake, and family and friends had begun to gather.
That, Spivey said, was when the shots started.
The 64-year-old said she pushed a table over, using it as a shield, and worked to get children at the party — many of whom were relatives — to safety in a nearby room.
“All we heard was gunshots. Somebody just came in the building and start shooting, and we all fell to the ground,” Spivey said. “Babies just falling. And everybody was running.”
‘Babies falling to the ground’
On Monday, relatives from the family that hosted the birthday party recounted the harrowing scene to Stocktonia.
Patrice Williams, the birthday girl’s mother, said her daughter was not injured in the gunfire — which killed four and injured at least 11. Williams said the injured included her sister, a cousin and three friends.
She told reporters that two nieces of her baby’s father, were among the dead.
“I’m speechless,” she said. “I’m sorry to all the mothers out there that lost their kids at my birthday party.”
She said the party was a mix of friends and family, and she wasn’t certain how many people were there or what happened when the shooting began.
“Everybody was getting ready to cut the cake,” she said. “I actually thought it was my balloons popping. And it was gunshots.”
Spivey said one child near her was felled by a bullet after being shot in the back.
“All I could see was babies falling to the ground, and I couldn’t help them,” Spivey said.
“Somebody fell right next to me,” she added. “They couldn’t breathe, and blood was everywhere.”
A day after the shooting, Spivey, of Stockton, and other family members were permitted inside the venue on Lucile Avenue after law enforcement cleared it. A macabre scene awaited them: upended tables, smashed birthday cake, deflated balloons on a floor streaked with blood.
Scattered around the floor were the remnants of a crowd that had fled amid violence. Folding chairs collapsed to the floor alongside abandoned plastic trays and a deflated, toddler-size ball pit. Cans of soda tumbled amid plastic sippy cups. On the floor, a crumpled sign on white printer paper, cast to the ground from some private doorway, read “Off limits thank you.”
Everywhere, children’s shoes sat abandoned: a pair of strappy metallic sandals side by side. A single small black Mary Jane. One half of a pair of Nikes inside the storage room where children had hidden, its mate still lying outside.
Wounded still hospitalized
Officials have not released the names of any victims, but they said those who died were ages 8, 9, 14 and 21. Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, said among all shooting victims, ages ranged from 8 to 30.
The conditions of those who were injured have improved, Brent said, adding that some have been released from hospitals. At least one was still in critical — but stable — condition, she said.
Authorities says the event was “targeted” by assailants who are unknown at this time.
“We’re confident that this was not a random act,” Sheriff Patrick Withrow said Sunday afternoon at a news conference. “They walked into this area and were probably looking for somebody in particular.”
Investigators say they are seeking multiple suspects in the attack, and they are asking for the public’s help. Authorities have urged anyone with potential information, especially those with video or eyewitness accounts, to call the non-emergency line of the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office at (209) 468-4400 or Stockton Crime Stoppers at (209) 946-0600, which currently is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved in the fatal shooting.
Withrow said weapons were discovered at the scene, although he did not disclose how many or what types of guns were found. Authorities have not yet determined whether the weapons are connected to Saturday’s shooting.
Family reeling
Williams said her 2-year-old daughter didn’t understand what had happened, but her two other children ages 4 and 9 were traumatized.
She said she is in school to become a medical assistant, and works at a youth center. “I help the youth at my job,” she said. “It was hurting me not to help them on the floor.”
She struggled to say what she thought of the shooters, who investigators say still have not been found.
“They deserve to be in jail,” she said. “They deserve to go to hell, actually.”
Spivey’s sister, Berniece Bass, said she was not at the venue when the shooting occurred, but she rushed to the north Stockton event space after she got a call about the gunfire. Bass said she has witnessed violence in Stockton before — including being in the middle of a shootout — but nothing of this level.
“I’ve never seen so many people shot,” the 52-year-old told reporters. “They were celebrating life.”
“Mothers woke up this morning, on a Monday morning, and couldn’t send their babies to school,” she said. “Just imagine as a mother waking up this morning.”
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