Neighbors now walk past the same house and see not balloons and folding chairs, but bloodstains they can’t unsee and silence that feels heavier than sirens. Parents who were there replay every second, wondering if they could have moved faster, shielded better, done anything differently. The child whose birthday it was will grow up with stories of a party that ended in gunfire, of friends who never came home, of a cake that no one was able to cut.

As detectives review footage and interview witnesses, Stockton is left holding its breath, torn between rage and numbness. Community members gather for vigils, lighting candles where children once played tag. The search for a motive feels small compared to the size of the loss, yet everyone clings to it, hoping that understanding why might somehow make living with it just a little less unbearable.