Hundreds attend vigil following Stockton mass shooting, call to end gun violence

Kathleen Quinn and Graham Womack, The Sacramento Bee on Nov 30, 2025

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Trina Turner asked people in attendance to look in each other’s eyes and get to know one another.

Turner, a pastor at Victory in Praise Church in Stockton, participated in a vigil on Sunday afternoon. It came less than 24 hours after 15 people were shot at a children’s party in an unincorporated part of San Joaquin County just north of Stockton city limits. Four people have died, three of them children.

“I want you to look around at the people that’s gathered here today,” Turner said. “People just heard about it, saw a flyer and they showed up to stand here today. But I need us to stand tomorrow and next week and next month, to begin to speak out.”

Turner joined leaders of different faiths who came together on Sunday to hold the vigil. The vigil was organized by a group called Faith in the Valley and was open to people of all denominations and faiths.

Hundreds of people showed up for the vigil, which was held on Thornton Road, near the site of the mass shooting, to call for an end to gun violence in Stockton. The temperature was 50 degrees and the sky was blanketed with gray clouds. The attendees wore jackets, scarves and beanies, and were handed votive candles and flowers.

‘How can I make a difference?’

Speakers included members of the faith community and elected officials. California Sen. Jerry McNerney defended Stockton but also implored people to look inward.

“Stockton is a great city,” McNerney said. “Everyone here, everyone in the back, everyone front, cares very deeply about our great city, but Stockton is also a complicated city, and when events like this happen, we have to ask ourselves, ‘What could I do differently? How can I make a difference?’”

Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee addressed those considering retaliation. Lee’s brother was killed in a drive-by shooting in the early 1990s. Lee said that he pondered retaliating.

“It’s human to want to hurt people who hurt people you love,” Lee said. “But I had a choice to make and I hope that the people out there in our community make the right choice and contact law enforcement.”

Lee appeared to be referring to those who engaged in the shooting, who are unknown. No arrests have been made and authorities have not released a possible motive or information on suspects.

“Call me, call the mayor, call whoever you know, call the pastors, call your friend, turn yourself in, because at some point the redemption for what you did is going to happen when you see the person that created you,” Lee said. “But you can start the process by turning yourself in and doing the right thing today.”

Lee also said, “It’s never been gangster to kill kids.”

Moment of silence, moment to reflect

Leon Scoggins, founder and lead pastor of Life Unity Church in Stockton led a moment of silence. He also spoke.

“I’m mad as hell that an 8-year-old, that a 9-year-old, that a 14-year-old, that a 21-year-old was killed in our city,” Scoggins said.

Scoggins added that though he and others were “mad as hell,” that was not all they would do.

“We’re going to leave and say, ‘Devil you will not have this city and the spirit of death that is over the city of Stockton, California. We serve you an eviction notice today,’” Scoggins said. “And we say, ‘Get the hell out of our city.’”

“ I’m a pastor who’s totally against guns, and we always just talk about it and stuff,” Al Sheppard, an associate pastor at 1st Thessalonians Missionary Baptist Church in Stockton, said in an interview. “But why do we have to keep going through these senseless killings before people realize that it is guns that is the root of all the killings?”

Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi told KTXL on Sunday that the shooting was gang-related. San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow wouldn’t confirm this during a press briefing on Sunday afternoon. But some at the vigil appeared to have paid heed to the possibility of the shooting being gang-related, such as John Boisa, a Stockton resident.

Boisa said he attended the vigil to support his community.

“Well, I hope that gang violence and the existence of gangs eventually is gone from Stockton, that’s my hope,” Boisa said.

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