Vallejo leaders seek new gun violence solutions after 4-year-old girl critically injured in shooting

VALLEJO — Vallejo police and Solano County elected officials said that they will be rolling out new plans to strengthen community safety after a shooting in Vallejo which critically injured a 4-year-old girl on Sunday night.

“Every Vallejo resident deserves the need to feel safe in their home and neighborhood,” Solano County Supervisor Cassandra James, who lives in the Country Club Crest neighborhood where the shooting took place, said during a press conference on Thursday. “This incident underscores the urgent need to prioritize community safety and work collaboratively to address violence in our city.”

“This type of violence is not acceptable in this community,” James said, adding that she heard more than 20 rounds of gunfire as she was bathing her child. 

Vallejo police said that around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, officers were called to reports of gunfire at Mark Avenue and Sawyer Street. Police said that a child suffering from a gunshot wound arrived at a hospital a short time later. 

Police declined to provide further details about the shooting and did not disclose the identity of the child. Police spokesperson Sgt. Rashad Hollis said Thursday that the child is now in stable condition.

According to a report by KTVU, who spoke to the child’s family, the girl’s mother was driving through the area and drove through a gun battle between people on the street and others in a car. The girl’s mother took her to Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo and she was later transferred to Children’s Hospital in Oakland.

Vallejo police Deputy Chief Robert Knight said Thursday that the department’s new Raven gunshot detection system, which is in beta testing, immediately alerted officers to the location of the shots. 

Knight said that the key to reducing gun violence will be developing a shared approach to public safety. To facilitate that, he said the department will be rolling out a gun violence reduction initiative that will involve strong partnerships with community organizations. 

Newly elected Mayor Andrea Sorce said that the Vallejo City Council is prioritizing public safety and this includes reaching out to other cities to build regional partnerships and establishing an interagency task force to bring federal state and local law enforcement together to keep the community safe. 

“I am going to be working with everyone together to bring resources to our community and ensure that we have a plan to improve safety in our community,” Sorce said. “And that includes building capacity and staffing in our police department, but it also includes preventative efforts to interrupt these cycles of violence, and it's so important that we have the community at the table”.  

Knight said that he is 100% on board with Sorce’s plans for an interagency task force. 

“I've had several conversations with the mayor already,” he said. “The amount of which we are in lock step with the new mayor is phenomenal. I cannot speak highly enough about that. I'm very impressed, thus far by her openness and her willingness to listen to all sides.” 

Californians for Safety and Justice Executive Director Tinisch Hollins, who is also a resident of the Country Club Crest neighborhood, said shootings like that traumatize their community. 

“As a survivor, someone who has lost members of my own family to gun violence, I know what that trauma can do,” she said. “So to hear those gunshots go off and know that a four year old child was injured is something that's resting on my spirit and many others who are in the community.”  

James said that she is seeking to facilitate support for that. 

“We have organizations that are applying for Trauma Recovery Center dollars, because this is a traumatic experience that nobody should have to deal with,” she said. “We are also asking for increased investment in this part of the Bay Area.” 

Californians for Safety and Justice communications director Will Matthews emphasized that solutions to gun violence go beyond law enforcement. 

“Accountability and justice for perpetrators is absolutely an important piece of the puzzle, but it really doesn't do anything absent investment in proven community based crime prevention programming that we know works,” he said.

Matthews said that funding is under threat for a number of important crime prevention programs such as re-entry programs for those who have experienced incarceration, job training, mental health support, addiction recovery and housing assistance for vulnerable populations. 

There have been several recent incidents of gun violence in the Country Club Crest neighborhood, including a fatal shooting on New Year's Eve. But shootings also were on track to decline in 2024 compared to previous years.

According to statistics from the Vallejo Police Department, as of November there had been a drop in most categories of reported crime compared to 2023, including a 7% decline in aggravated assault and a 15% decline in shooting incidents. The exceptions were in reported murder and rape incidents, with two more murders than the previous year and a 26% in rape incidents. 

The department has not yet released data for December and January.