GoFundMe page,<\/a> where he was described as a \u201cbright, loved, and promising young soul.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cAmari was a football player, a basketball player, a brother, son, and cousin,\u201d the page read. \u201cHe was making plans and looking into colleges.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, rapper Burna Boy announced he would be covering the funeral costs for all four of the victims. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I heard about the children murdered in Stockton, my heart broke,\u201d the artist said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Burna Boy said he reached out to Vice Mayor Jason Lee to see how he could support the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to do whatever I could do to support these parents,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
On Tuesday, San Joaquin County sheriff\u2019s officials said they have not made any arrests or identified any suspects in the attack and are still investigating possible motives, including any possible links to gang members or two local rappers who were in attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur investigation team is going down all paths,\u201d Heather Brent, spokesperson for the San Joaquin County Sheriff\u2019s Department, said. \u201cBy releasing misinformation or assumptions, that can hinder our investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brent confirmed two people who are associated with the rappers, and attended the party, were taken into custody by Stockton Police on Monday on suspicion of violating the terms of their parole, but said the arrests were not connected to the shooting. <\/p>\n
The shooting left the community in shock over the holiday weekend. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never been gangster to kill kids,\u201d Lee said during a vigil Sunday. \u201cI hope the people in our community make the right choice and contact law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Lee said he\u2019s also met privately with parents and relatives of the victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a moment for unity and focused leadership \u2014 to guide our community through this crisis, to demand accountability and bring those responsible to justice, and to stay resilient in our fight to end senseless gun violence,\u201d he said in the statement. <\/p>\n
In an interview, Lee said city officials had to look at not just finding those responsible for the shooting, but looking at the root causes of violent crime in their community. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe lack of investment in these communities has created a culture where this continues to happen, and people are numb to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Without resources in the community, he said, addressing gang culture in the city will continue to be a challenge. <\/p>\n
For now, he said, he hopes anyone with information about the incident will come forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gang culture in Stockton, this no-snitch culture, to me, is part of the challenge in transforming this community,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully people step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials have worked with police and advocates, and looked for ways to curb violent crime for years, seeing at times small victories. <\/p>\n
So far this year, the city has recorded 34 homicides, according to Stockton Police Department statistics, a downward trend compared to last year.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the city saw 53 homicides. <\/p>\n
On Monday, Padilla said she visited the school where one of the young victims attended and instead of being greeted by students happy to see friends over the Thanksgiving break, saw children grieving their classmate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat really hit hard for me,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cWhatever their beef is, whatever retaliation, whatever feud \u2014 it should never involve children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Padilla said sheriff officials and Stockton Police have also reached out to neighboring police agencies, looking for cooperation in helping curb any retaliatory violence that may come as a result of the shooting.<\/p>\n
The FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also assisting in the investigation. <\/p>\n
Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi described the shooting as an act of gang-related terrorism, and said she had reached out to the White House and asked the administration to dedicate a U.S. attorney to the area to prosecute gang crimes, and Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s office for funding for youth employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis may be the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back\u201d and gets the city more resources, said Padilla.<\/p>\n
Stockton\u2019s former mayor from 2017 to 2021, Michael Tubbs, said the city has a history of violent crime that it\u2019s struggled to shake. His cousin was murdered in Stockton.<\/p>\n
\u201cStockton has always had a problem with violence and gang violence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Stockton Councilmember Mario Enriquez on Monday evening said he had reached out to the city manager, and hopes the city could set up an emergency meeting to discuss what steps it might take, and what resources it needs to not just find those responsible for the deadly shooting, but curb violence in the city. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though the city of Stockton has battled gangs and worked to quell violence in its streets before, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,3409,1409,179,45407,1431,45409,43746,45411,1024,45408,592,135,45410,16220,72],"class_list":["post-78852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-child","tag-city","tag-community","tag-deadly-stockton","tag-family","tag-gofundme-page","tag-heather-brent","tag-investigation-team","tag-monday","tag-padilla","tag-people","tag-shooting","tag-stockton-police","tag-violence","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}