The anguished dad of a California teen killed in last week’s birthday party massacre described his son as “the perfect kid,” a report said.
Amari Peterson, 14, died after one or more gunmen sprayed bullets into a crowd of parents and kids who had gathered for a two-year-old’s birthday in Stockton, CA, on November 29.
The shooting, which authorities say is linked to gang activity, left ten wounded and four dead — three of them children.
Amari Peterson was 14 when he was killed on November 29, 2025. GoFundMe
Patrick Peterson, father of slain Amari Peterson, speaks to KCRA. KCRA“I wake up screaming, crying. All I keep seeing is my son just gasping for air and trying to breathe,” Amari’s dad Patrick Peterson told KCRA.
Authorities have yet to name a possible suspect, who allegedly targeted local rapper MBNel during the attack, but instead killed Peterson, two 8-year-old girls, and a 21-year-old man.
Blood and other remnants outside the back of the building where people were escaping during the shooting. David G. McIntyre for NY PostMBNel, whose real name is Johnel Dongon, and his wife were hit but survived with minor injuries, the artist’s dad told The Post on Monday.
Amari didn’t deserve to be caught in the crossfire.
“My son was the perfect kid, man. He was the perfect son,” Patrick Peterson told KCRA.
Amari Peterson was the “perfect kid,” his dad said. GoFundMe
A vigil for the victims outside the event space where the shooting occurred. David G. McIntyre for NY PostOn the pavement behind the party room, hideous blood stains remained spread among children’s shoes and toys as of Monday, haunting images captured by The Post showed.
A garage-style door at the front of the party room was riddled with bullet holes.
A stray bullet struck near bystanders’ feet at a business across the street and flew straight through a neighbor’s home, puncturing a hole in his back window.
Bullet holes on the door frame of the banquet hall where the shooting occured. David G. McIntyre for NY PostMBNel left Stockton and had been hiding out in the suburbs of Sacramento, Junior Dongon told The Post.
He had been targeted before, once in a drive-by shooting in 2020 in which gunmen fired more than 20 bullets at his parents’ house, Dongon said.
Eight-year-old Journey Rose Guerrero was killed, along with her relative Maya Lupian, who died two weeks before her ninth birthday, her family wrote on a GoFundMe page.
“She deserved a childhood full of laughter, school days, karate, family time and dreams… not this,” the page reads.
Susano Archuleta, 21, was struck in the neck and bled out on the scene.“My brother died in my arms,” his brother Emmanuel Lopez recalled to the LA Times.
The birthday girl’s mother Patrice Williams described diving to the ground after hearing a sound like “balloons popping.”
Teenager Amari Peterson died along with two 8-year-old girls and a 21-year-old man. GoFundMe
A woman places flowers at the memorial near the scene of the shooting. David G. McIntyre for NY Post“It’s my daughter’s dad, both his nieces passed away. My sister actually got shot. My cousin got shot. My son’s friend got shot. Three of my friends got shot. My friend’s baby dad got shot and killed,” Williams said.
“I witnessed a woman pull up on the side of the street and just run, yelling, ‘My baby! My baby! My baby!’” shaken local resident Brent Terill told The Post on Monday.
