‘Vengeance perpetuates vengeance’: Health leaders urge nonviolence after Stockton shooting

As Stockton mourns the four young people killed in Saturday’s mass shooting, local health officials issued a public caution against addressing violence with more violence. 

County health officials circulated that call, along with mental health crisis and violence prevention resources, in response to the gunfire that ripped through a child’s birthday party in north Stockton over the weekend, injuring 13 and killing four — Susano Archuleta, age 21; Amari Peterson, 14; and cousins Maya Lupian and Journey Rose Guerrero, both 8 years old.

“It is normal to be angry,” said Genevieve Valentine, director of San Joaquin County’s Health Care Services Agency. “It is normal to be in denial. It is normal to try to reconcile what the hell just happened.”

But more violence will only result in more violence, health officials caution.

The Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the investigation into the attack, has stated that though investigators believe the shooting was “targeted,” they don’t yet know who carried out the massacre — or why. At times, Mayor Christina Fugazi and San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas have suggested a gang connection. But San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow, whose office heads the investigation, has said it’s still too early to say whether gang rivalries played a role in the mass shooting. No arrests had yet been confirmed as of Friday evening.

It is normal to be angry. It is normal to be in denial. It is normal to try to reconcile what the hell just happened.

Genevieve Valentine, director of San Joaquin County’s Health Care Services Agency

Whatever the motive behind the mass shooting, Valentine and county Behavioral Health Services Director Fay Vieira are experienced in helping communities navigate the harrowing aftermath of brutality involving children. And both say they know that in some scenarios, violences makes retaliation hard to resist.

“When vengeance perpetuates vengeance, we start breeding hatred and anger,” Valentine said.

“It’s not easy to want to go down a different path, a healing path,” she added. “But it’s necessary for you. It is necessary for the community.”

Valentine formerly led foster care reform, cultural humility and therapy in youth facilities while working in Alaska, according to the county. She was also in charge of Merced County’s behavioral health team in 2022, Valentine said, when a mother there allegedly killed her three children before attempting suicide.

Vieira has assisted abused children and families who have experienced domestic violence, as well as those who’ve seen “horrific crime and traumas very similar to what we experienced in our community (Saturday),” she said.

During her career, Vieira recalled witnessing young children act out impulses of retaliation. The kids would “play it out in their relationships with other children at school, with their family members in the home, caretakers,” Vieira said.

“They would play out that kind of instinct to make things balanced in the world.”

Cycles of violence for youth

In Stockton, those wrapped up in cycles of violence are often young. Stockton’s Office of Violence Prevention intervenes with kids as young as 12, and the typical person in need of violence prevention support is between 12 and 35, according to a 2023 presentation by the group. Typically, they’ve also been part of a gang, shot at, or involved in the justice system, OVP said. 

Young people also are involved in a significant number of Stockton’s homicides — including this year, even before Saturday’s losses. In the past 12 months, almost a quarter of homicide victims in the city, and about a third of the perpetrators were age 19 or younger, according to FBI crime statistics. Saturday’s deaths, which happened on county land, will be tallied separately.

The only way violence is going to stop is if our parents, our families, our children decide that enough is enough.

Genevieve Valentine, director of San Joaquin County’s Health Care Services Agency

Stocktonia asked Valentine and Vieira why young people might be disproportionately swept up in violence — and what one could possibly say to youth who may be considering reacting to peers’ deaths with violence of their own.

“If we all had a good answer for that, we’d win a Nobel Peace Prize here in Stockton,” Valentine said.

But there is hope.

“The only way violence is going to stop is if our parents, our families, our children decide that enough is enough,” she said.

Steps for handling grief

Valentine and Vieira have a few concrete things those coping with grief after Saturday’s shooting should know.

First, it’s important to expect that grief could also include denial and anger, Valentine said.

Second, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to face grief alone.

“Science and psychology … say that oftentimes people experience grief alone, and that in and of itself can cause long-term depression, anxiety and fear,” Valentine said.

Finding community is important in facing grief and in choosing a healing path, Vieira said.

In her career, Vieira said she has noticed that those who are successful in doing so “did a really good job of building up their support system — whether that was church, whether that was Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, whether it was family or joining a gym. (They were) the people who didn’t do it alone.”

She added: “Seeking help is not a sign of weakness. It’s actually an act of courage.”

The broader community has a responsibility to those who are hurting, too, Valentine said. In her experience responding to the Merced County killings, Valentine learned that “the community must wrap themselves around each other, especially after the loss of children,” she said.

To that end, the Health Care Services Agency has offered anyone impacted by the mass shooting several ways to get support, including a 24/7 “warmline” phone number; a non-emergency behavioral health line and contacts for an injury and violence prevention group.

Seeking help is not a sign of weakness. It’s actually an act of courage.

Fay Vieira, san joaquin county Behavioral Health Services Director

A shooting survivor himself who also lost a brother to gun violence, Vice Mayor Jason Lee urged those most impacted by Saturday’s violence to give the county resources a try. “I know how critical immediate therapeutic support can be,” he said in a statement Friday.

“I encourage anyone in our community who is struggling during these difficult times to reach out for support — no one should have to face this pain alone,” Lee said.

Plans for the county

Beyond offering crisis contacts, the county also announced plans to create collective healing spaces alongside community groups and faith organizations — and to work on evidence-based community gun violence prevention using a roadmap developed by state health experts.

For first responders and other county workers who may need support after Saturday’s shooting or other traumatic incidents, there’s a new county Incident Debriefing Team that can offer that, Vieira said.  

As Stockton grapples with violence, Valentine offered words of hope for the city she said is unlike any other she’s served.

“Stockton is a special place,” she said. “The talent that lives in these demographics (is) beautiful. The poetry. The artistic abilities. The … mission and vision and advocacy that the children and youth do in Stockton cannot be undervalued. … (Our) strengths together are far more valuable than the things that pull us apart.”