Stockton crime survivors take to Capitol, demand ‘policy not pity’ to fight violence
Stockton crime survivors, including the families of those killed in November’s mass shooting, took to the California state Capitol on Tuesday to demand more resources to fight gun violence in their city.
“Stockton has cried long enough. Stockton has bled long enough. We are calling on (Gov. Gavin) Newsom to do more than offer condolences. Survivors don’t need pity, they need policy,” said the Rev. William T. DeArmond Jr., pastor of Hilliard Chapel AME Zion Church in Stockton, flanked by more than two-dozen survivors, community advocates and state Sen. Jerry McNerney.
“Trauma does not expire when the budget cycle closes,” DeArmond said.
McNerney, D-Pleasanton, called on his fellow lawmakers to increase funding for crime victims, including more for violence prevention, as well as $10 million in one-time grant funding for family justice centers across California to help aid families escaping domestic violence.
The call to action on the Capitol lawn came six weeks after the shooting that left three children and a 21-year-old dead and at least 13 others wounded — six weeks with still no arrests or announced suspects in the carnage.
“I don’t think ‘tragedy’ is an adequate enough word to describe what happened in November,” said Tashante McCoy-McGaskey, founder of Crime Survivors Speak, the Stockton advocacy that called the Tuesday news conference, and whose brother lost his life to gun violence in 2012.
As many as 150 people were inside the banquet hall on Lucile Avenue when the gunfire erupted. Multiple suspects wearing dark clothing and armed with multiple weapons fired on the crowd, authorities said in the days after the shooting. San Joaquin County sheriff’s detectives recovered about 50 casings from the scene.
Patrick Peterson, father of Amari Peterson, the 14-year-old Modesto boy who was one of the children killed in the shooting, addressed reporters, his emotions raw only weeks after his son’s slaying.
“I’m distraught, torn apart,” Peterson said. “The impact Amari has left on my community — this is just a nightmare for me. This is a very hard time for me and my family.”
DeArmond said Stockton residents need answers in the Nov. 29 shooting to calm the frustration and fear that continues to grip the city as the mass shooting investigation grinds on.
“We haven’t heard about any leads,” DeArmond said after the brief news conference.
“It’s frustrating,” he said, adding that any new news “will bring some ease to Stockton.”
“Somebody knows something,” DeArmond said. “Hopefully, we’ll get this resolved.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2026 at 12:58 PM.
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