The children’s party that became the horrific scene of a mass shooting Saturday included “several gang members” among the scores of guests, parole officials assert in court papers in justifying the arrest of the 2-year-old birthday girl’s father and uncle.
The documents point to a potential motive in the attack that left four young partygoers dead and 13 others wounded in north Stockton over the weekend. Some local officials have suggested the shootings involved gang warfare. But San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow, whose office heads the investigation, has said it’s too early to say whether gang rivalries played a role in the mass shooting.
“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.”
On Thursday, Luciano Guerrero, identified in court papers as the father of the 2-year-old, and another party guest, Billy Williams, appeared separately in San Joaquin County Superior Court. Williams was identified by family members as the birthday girl’s uncle.
Both were arrested in the wake of the attack on charges unrelated to the assault itself and remain in custody in the San Joaquin County jail.
Williams was arrested Monday outside the courthouse as family members were giving interviews to reporters about Saturday’s shooting. Officers dressed in plain clothes and police vests took Williams into custody to the surprise and distress of his family, who followed them to an unmarked pickup truck, where Williams was loaded into the front passenger seat.
Family members asked officers why they weren’t concentrating on finding the assailants in Saturday’s attack instead of arresting Williams.
“All these … kids dead at my birthday party, and now y’all are gonna sit here and take my brother,” said Patrice Williams, who hosted the party for her 2-year-old daughter.
Guerrero faces parole violations, and Williams was jailed in connection with a traffic-related case. Neither man has been implicated as having been involved in the shooting.
In a court filing in support of the arrest of Guerrero, 22, parole officers allege he was seen consorting with a member of the Flyboys gang.
“Several gang members associated with multiple gang sets with the Stockton area were present at the time of the shooting,” they wrote.
Guerrero is a “self-admitted member” of the Sureños, identified by the federal government as a criminal street gang loosely associated with the Mexican Mafia. In addition, the court document cites Stockton police officials saying he is a member of the ABZ/Muddy Boyz.
He was on parole after serving seven months of a two-year sentence for carrying a gun in public after having been identified as member of a gang, plus evading police. As a condition of his parole, he is not allowed to consort with known gang members.
Williams, 25, was wanted for failing to make a court appearance for charges involving traffic violations. Court papers show Williams, who has several felony convictions, also had violated his parole by being in contact with a known gang member — Guerrero.
San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas has repeatedly said the shooting involved gangs, at times suggesting the connection and in other instances asserting the motive.
“This is gang gun violence,” Freitas told KCRA-TV on Wednesday.
Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi mentioned gangs in a statement a day after the attack. In a social media post, she wrote, “Gang violence exists in cities across the country, but this act was a pure act of terrorism.” Later this week, she clarified her comments, saying she wasn’t sure whether gang members were involved.
Stockton police spokesperson David Scott said there are approximately 86 documented gangs in the city, with approximately 2,700 gang members.
Yet sheriff’s officials have been firm in their insistence that they can’t say yet whether the attack Saturday, which killed three schoolchildren along with a 21-year-old man, was gang-related.
“We’re not relying on assumptions and opinions that are posted on social media,” sheriff’s spokesperson Heather Brent said. “Until we have 100% factual information that this was gang violence, we’re not going to say that.”
Berniece Bass, the birthday girl’s great-aunt, said parents do not want to see people talking on social media about how their loved ones died because of gang violence.
“I can say that it was not a gang war. It was kids,” Bass told reporters earlier this week. “You lost your stripes. If you thought you was a gangster, they’re gone.”
She also called for anyone with information about the suspects to come forward.
“If you have any idea who pulled up and robbed us, stole from us, and took from us lives, tell it,” she said. “You’re not a snitch because the person that did it is not a gangster.”
Sheriff’s officials have not publicly identified any suspects in the attack. Withrow said earlier this week that investigators are looking at the possibility of multiple shooters, but no other information has been provided.
Stocktonia staff writer Shaylee Navarro contributed to this report.
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