‘Don’t normalize this’: after deadly gunfire at children’s party, advocates urge focus on violence tearing US apart

Community fears shooting will be written off as gang violence and says examination of complex factors such as online feuds is required

Tashante McCoy was celebrating her grandson's fifth birthday in Stockton, California, on Saturday, when she learned that masked men had opened fire at another child's birthday party on the other side of town.

Armed men had walked into the banquet hall where at least 100 people had gathered to celebrate a toddler's birthday, a friend of McCoy's who was at the event would later tell her. At least one man opened fire just as partygoers were preparing to cut the cake.