(The Center Square) – Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee spoke out this week about what he called inaction by other city officials, which he said created the conditions for the deadly Nov. 29 shooting.
“I’m not going to say that the mayor and the city council is completely responsible because they didn’t pull the trigger,” Lee told The Center Square on Thursday. “But when you don’t invest in communities like these, when you don’t prioritize the lives of young people, you put the bullets in the clip. I’m not going to absolve the council of responsibility.”
According to local law enforcement, the November shooting in Stockton killed three children, ages 8, 9 and 14, and a 21-year-old and injured 11 others. The four victims were shot at a children’s birthday party that an estimated 100 people had attended, police said. The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, the lead law enforcement agency investigating the shooting, has not released information about a potential suspect. No arrests have been made.
Lee told The Center Square Thursday that there was a delay in a vote on a city ordinance that would ban face coverings. He said that delay is giving criminals in Stockton an opportunity to wear a total face covering that allows them to get away with violent crimes. Some city council members wanted to delay a vote on that ordinance just days before the shooting, according to the Stockton Record.
“There’s no snow, no ski lift, no snowmobiles in Stockton,” Lee said. “There’s no reason [for a ski mask]. People are walking in banks, walking in businesses, walking around town, driving through communities like mine with a ski mask on, looking to kill people, and the city knows about it and will not act on the face-covering ban.”
Lee added he advocated for allocating more funding for the city’s Office of Violence Prevention at a budget meeting in June 2025, saying that $2 million was not enough to help prevent violence in Stockton.
“We funded the police department $190 million and the Office of Violence Prevention $2 million,” Lee told The Center Square. “Now everybody’s screaming ‘prevention.’ These elected officials need to walk the talk.”
Mayor Christina Fugazi, City Manager Johnny Ford and the city’s public information officer, Tony Mannor, did not respond to The Center Square on Thursday. Lora Larson, the director of the Office of Violence Prevention, also did not return calls to The Center Square.
Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom, D-Stockton, previously said she would like to see prevention, intervention and laws that ensure accountability after a violent attack occurs.
“In order to really stop something like what we just experienced, I strongly believe that we need the kind of laws that demand accountability and the kind of laws that would deter folks,” Ransom told The Center Square on Dec. 3. “Gangs would use a younger person to commit a murder, because they know that younger person is going to get out and that the adult person would serve life. We need to make sure we’re not creating these loopholes.”
Lee, who also told The Center Square that Fugazi has not taken his calls since the shooting, added on Thursday that he has also spoken with U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, D-Stockton, about the shooting and ways to address violence in Stockton. This includes funding of police substations and possible legislation in the coming year, Lee said.
Harder’s communications director, who works in the congressman’s Washington, D.C. office, was not available on Thursday afternoon.
Heather Brent, the public information officer for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, declined to answer questions about investigation or whether progress has been made on identifying a shooter.
