9-year-old Stockton boy fights for his life after shooting

The mother of a 9-year-old boy who was shot several times in Stockton while sitting in a vehicle last weekend said Wednesday that her son continues to fight for his life at University of California Davis Medical Center.

Amonte Ware, his twin brother, their uncle and another person were sitting in a white pickup truck in the area of Searchlight and Hazelton avenues on Saturday when two men shot at their vehicle, striking three of the occupants.

Resee Ware, Amonte’s mother, said in a Facebook post that her son was coming home from football camp when he was shot four times.

She said the bullets hit the child’s arm, chest and jaw, which caused shattering in the jaw and damaged a carotid artery, leaving a bullet in his skull.

The mother said in the post:

“We are taking things day by day.” 

At 1:16 p.m., police were dispatched to the location on reports of a shooting and located a 29-year-old man who had been shot.

The man was transported to a hospital and was in stable condition, police said.

Officers later found that two other people, Amonte and his 28-year-old uncle, had been injured during the shooting, but were taken to a hospital by family and friends.

Two suspects, now identified as 21-year-old Jose Antonio Trujillo-Pacheco and 23-year-old Rodolfo Vital, were arrested and arraigned Tuesday afternoon on several charges in San Joaquin County Superior Court for the triple shooting. 

According to police, the shooting does not appear to be random.

Trujillo-Pacheco was on probation at the time of the shooting, according to San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Ronald Northup.

Trujillo-Pacheco and Vital will return to court on April 14 for further arraignment. Both men are being held without bail.