By Sharon Bernstein, The Sacramento Bee
The young mother who rented Willie Colins’ event space for her 2-year-old’s birthday party on Saturday just stopped by the business on Lucile Avenue in Stockton, California, to see if it was available, a simple request that turned into tragedy when shots rang out during the celebration, killing three children and an adult, and wounding 11 more people.
Colins, who with his girlfriend ran several businesses at the location under the umbrella Vertical Compass LLC, said about 80 to 100 people were in attendance at the party, which was booked as part of a new enterprise they were calling Monkey Space.
“Such a horrible event,” Colins said. “There’s no way to think that a 2-year-old’s birthday party would ever turn into a massacre.”
He had been crying since Saturday night, Colins said, and avoiding picking up his telephone. He worries that the incident will ignite a gang war, and that he and his loved ones could become targets.
“Until this person gets found, it’s still an active problem running around out there,” he said. “I just pray that we don’t get tied up in some gang politics.”
On Monday afternoon, he and his girlfriend, whom he did not name, were talking about how to respond to the situation: Should they hire a lawyer? When would they be allowed inside the bloody scene? How would they clean it?
Among the dead on Saturday were children ages 8, 9 and 14, along with a 21-year-old. The shooter or shooters were still at large on Monday, further traumatizing a city that has struggled with violent crime and gang violence for years. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to their arrest.
San Joaquin County had 64 homicides in 2024, the same number as it had 10 years earlier, even as homicides dropped at the state level, according to data from the California Department of Justice. Firearms related crimes in the county rose dramatically from 294 in 2021 to 457 in 2024, the data shows.
Vinod Kumar, who owns the Lucile Avenue space just outside of the Stockton city limit and leased it to Colins, said he was horrified when another tenant phoned him on Saturday night and told him what had happened.
Kumar, who lives in the Bay Area and last year ran unsuccessfully for the Newark City Council in the East Bay, said he had already told Colins he was ending the company’s lease on his property.
Kumar said he knew that Colins sometimes held small events at the location, but not large parties. He said he had never heard of the name Monkey Space, but that he was familiar with Colins’ company Vertical Compass.
He said the property has generally been quiet. “I’ve owned it since 2018, and nothing has happened,” Kumar said. The space rented to Colins was formerly a children’s theater.
He tried to reach Colins on Saturday night after the shooting but was unable to get through, Kumar said.
“I talked to him last night,” Kumar said Monday. “He said he was so depressed. He was crying that this happened. He said he didn’t want to talk to anybody.”
Other tenants at the property were terrified when gunfire erupted, Kumar said.
Colins said that the party was not as large as the up to 150 people that police initially reported. And he said that Kumar did know an event was taking place on Saturday night.
The space, the former home of Kudos Children’s Theatre Company, was not a banquet hall. While state records show that Vertical Compass does have a license as a food business, Colins and his girlfriend did not cater the birthday party, he said.
His company is listed on state records as based in Grass Valley, but Colins said the couple no longer lives there. In addition to hosting events, they use the space for content creation, a recording studio, a foundation and other ventures.
The name, Monkey Space, was not formally established with authorities, he said, and neither state nor county business license lists reflected that name, online records and the county said. Still, the name appeared until Monday as a listing for a party and event space on Peerspace, a San Francisco-based website that acts as a hub for space rentals ranging from photo studios to party locations.
The listing, which was removed on Monday, described Monkey Space as “a stylish and versatile venue in Stockton designed for unforgettable gatherings.” The location could accommodate up to 250 people, the listing said.
“Our hearts go out to the families and friends of those impacted by these tragic losses in the Stockton community,” Peerspace spokesperson Molly Burke said in an email to The Bee.
The party, she said, had not been booked through their website.
“We’ve reviewed and have no record of any booking at the address in question over the past weekend,” she said in an email. “We learned about this incident via media reports, and have temporarily deactivated the listing while we communicate with the host.”
But Colins says he doesn’t expect to reopen his business any time soon — if ever.
“There’s no business there anymore,” he said. “It’s a memorial.”
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