Community and business The owner of the building said that he was aware that Vertical Compass LLC hosted small events at the property, but not large parties, and had never heard of the name "Monkey Space". The owner also said that he had told the owner of Vertical Compass LLC that he planned on ending his lease at the property prior to the shooting and said that there had not been any incidents at the location since he gained ownership of the property in 2018. After the shooting, the owner of Vertical Compass LLC said that he feared being caught up "gang politics" and was considering not reopening the business. On December 19, 2025, MBNel broke his silence after going into hiding after the shooting in a social media post in which he expressed his condolences to the victims of the shooting. A
makeshift memorial was created with dozens of flower bouquets, candles and other items. Nonprofit organizations delivered clothes and food boxes, and offered mental health counseling. Singer-songwriter
Burna Boy reached out to Stockton vice mayor
Jason Lee and through him offered to cover the funeral costs of the slain victims. On December 3, 2025, two vigils were held to honor the victims killed in the attack. The first vigil was an annual vigil organized by the San Joaquin District Attorney's Office since 2002 to honor victims of violent crime which was held at
Weber Point. Later the same day the Greater Christ Temple held a vigil near the site of the shooting which emphasized mental health support and unity among community members. Stockton mayor Christina Fugazi and Stockton council member Mariela Ponce contributed to a $25,000 reward put forth by Stockton
Crime Stoppers for information that led to an arrest or conviction of anyone involved in the attack. The Youth Peace and Justice Foundation organized a meeting between four rival gangs in the area on December 12 in an attempt to negotiate a multi-gang ceasefire. The location of the meeting was kept a secret from the media and police and only involved gang members, non-profit members, and potentially a requested member of the clergy and a community leader. The non-profit said it achieved a 21-day "conditional epiphany truce" as a result of the meeting. The founder of the non-profit, Daniel Chaplin, commented after the meeting that "if Stockton's political leadership fails to match the moral courage of these drivers with institutional commitment by January 15th, they will bear the moral responsibility for any violence that resumes". The
San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, Stockton Police Department, and city and county officials said that they had not received notice of the meeting from the non-profit. The sheriff's office released a statement in response to the meeting about how there was no verifiable information about how the ceasefire "would be monitored, enforced, or sustained, or if any agreement was in fact made".
David M. Kennedy, a criminologist who specializes in crime prevention, said that ceasefires between gangs are not backed-up by evidence about their efficacy and that he doubted the ability of the non-profit to "parachute into a new city without having any background or any relationships" and stop the violence. The organization said it intended to participate in a city council meeting after the shooting, but failed to show up. At the meeting, mayor Christina Fugazi questioned the legitimacy of the non-profit and said that she believed the group was taking advantage of the shooting and that it was a "scam" and that they were attempting to take advantage of an $8 million grant being used to fund a violence prevention program, which the non-profit denied. The non-profit had previously attempted to publicly ally itself with vice mayor Jason Lee, but Lee said he didn't return the non-profit's calls because the ceasefire headline had "bypassed all the good work being done". On December 28, 2025, less than a month after the shooting, 33-year-old Emmanuel Lopez, one of the survivors of the mass shooting, was shot and killed in
Lodi in what investigators believed to be a gang-related attack. However, authorities said there was no indication that Lopez's death and the mass shooting were connected. Lopez's daughter had been shot in the head during the shooting, but survived, and Lopez said in an interview with the
Los Angeles Times that he had held his friend, Susano Archuleta, as he died.
Political and government The San Joaquin County sheriff, Patrick Withrow, urged witnesses to come forward with information about the attack and said that if people knew information about the crime, but did not come forward, they were "complacent" and believed the killing of children was acceptable behavior. Withrow and the San Joaquin County district attorney Ron Freitas attended a vigil for the victims of the attack. The mayor of Stockton, Christina Fugazi, described the attack as a
terrorist act and an act of gang violence. Fugazi said in a statement that "the person or people responsible will lose their freedom for life" and that they would receive life sentences. After the attack, Fugazi said that the city had been cracking down on illegal firearms and had seized 752 guns so far in 2025, up from 610 in the same time period last year and that the city of Stockton had "approximately 5,000 gang members and 100 gangs". Fugazi requested federal assistance to combat violence within the city, saying that "we want to be their pilot site for the United States of America" and that the city was "ready with our arms open". Fugazi proposed "an anti-crime and human-development program" that would bring federal resources to the city from various federal agencies. However, Fugazi said that the request for assistance did not extend to the
deployment of the National Guard in the city as she didn't want Stockton to experience the same
unrest that
Los Angeles had endured earlier that year. Stockton's vice mayor, Jason Lee, called on the people responsible for the attack to turn themselves in and said "it’s never been gangsta to kill kids". Lee warned against people acting out in retaliation, reflecting on how his brother was murdered and how he had wanted to act out but didn't. Lee also implored anyone with information to speak to law enforcement. Later, Lee said the mayor and city council were partially to blame for the shooting, stating "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". Lee also lambasted the city council for delaying a vote to ban face coverings, which he introduced in June, saying that there was no reason for people to walk around in total face coverings in Stockton. Lee also criticized the city for not providing more funding to the city's Office of Violence Prevention, which he had advocated for during a budget meeting in June. The first city council meeting since the shooting was held on December 9, 2025, and it was attended by many residents who demanded that the council take decisive action in response to the shooting. At the start of the meeting, Stockton mayor Christina Fugazi did not acknowledge the shooting or request a moment of silence, but vice mayor Jason Lee requested a moment of silence at the end of the meeting. The meeting was attended by Cleveland School Remembers president Niki Smith, whose group was formed by teachers of Cleveland Elementary School who
witnessed a mass shooting at the school in 1989. Smith requested that the city council support the Office of Violence Prevention and to revive the defunct Advance Peace and
Operation Ceasefire strategies. Council member Michele Padilla thanked residents for attending the meeting, but rejected any notion of the idea that the city council was not dedicated to making the city safer, saying "there were recent public statements implying that this council turned down prevention services, that we refused funding, and that is simply misleading". Lee responded to Padilla noting that the city council had declined to support his proposal to have the Office of Violence Prevention and Advance Peace enter a partnership after the former lost federal funding, that the council had failed to vote to ban face coverings, and that it had failed to apply for a state grant to renovate the Impact Teen Center into youth housing. The city council later unanimously approved an $8 million state grant aimed at reducing violence and recidivism, and provided funding for a violence prevention project called REDIRECT – Restorative Engagement and Diversion through Incarceration Reduction, Care & Treatment. On December 24, 2025, Newsom announced the deployment of additional
California Highway Patrol troopers to Stockton to combat crime and violence in the city, prompting positive responses from local leaders. The
California Victim Compensation Board (CalVCB), an agency within
California Government Operations Agency, offered up to $70,000 in state assistance to the victims. A CalVCB spokesperson, Lynda Gledhill, urged victims of the shooting to reach out to the agency or to San Joaquin County's Victim-Witness advocates to receive compensation. The funds were made available to cover medical treatment, counseling, emotional support, and potential income loss caused by the shooting. The
Stockton Unified School District released a statement after the shooting in which they said that counselors had been made available at all schools in the district. On January 13, 2026, survivors and family members of survivors of gun violence from Stockton, including those present at the mass shooting, visited the California State Capitol where they spoke about their experiences and demanded action. Also present was state senator
Jerry McNerney, who requested that the
California legislature increase funding for crime victims and violence prevention and pass a $10 million one-time grant for family justice centers across the state. The father of victim Amari Peterson also spoke in a press conference at the Capitol where he described the impact of losing his son and expressed his frustration with the lack of progress in the investigation into the shooting. ==See also==