Mass shooting at Stockton child's birthday party brings back memories of '89 school shooting

STOCKTON -- Two mass shootings, less than five miles apart, but separated by decades, are once again leaving the Stockton community shaken. 

The 1989 Cleveland Elementary School shooting, which left five children dead, remains one of the city's most painful memories. Now, this weekend's tragedy is bringing those horrific memories back to the surface.

"It brought me back to Cleveland School, when all those children had been killed, too. And then this one, it was also children," said Patricia Flores, whose nephew was killed in Saturday's shooting.

"Why would someone want to do that?" Flores added. "Why take your anger out on innocent people?"

Saturday's shooting at a children's birthday party has stirred painful memories of the 1989 attack, when 24-year-old Patrick Purdy opened fire on a school playground with an AK-47–style rifle, killing five children and wounding more than 30 others before taking his own life.

"I was thinking about, and we all remember, where we were on that day," said Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee. "And I don't want to have those memories over and over again."

Just a short drive from that same schoolyard, Stockton faces another tragedy: Three children and a 21-year-old were killed in a single act of violence.

The circumstances of the two shootings are different, but the impact is painfully similar.

"When this kind of event happens, it touches everyone in the community," said Judy Weldon, a former Cleveland Elementary teacher and survivor of the 1989 shooting. She believes this weekend's violence should be a wake-up call and a push for city leaders to reinvest in programs like Advance Peace, which helps mediate neighborhood conflicts before they escalate, and Operation Ceasefire, a Stockton Police initiative aimed at reducing gun violence.

"These are two different programs that did work and were actionable," Weldon said. "They weren't just thoughts and prayers; they were actionable."