Stockton parents react to teen killed in shooting: ‘She had her whole life ahead’
By Lee Anne Denyer
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STOCKTON, California (KCRA) — Rosemary Aceves and David Valdovinos are pleading for anyone with information about their daughter’s death to come forward.
“She had her whole life ahead,” Aceves said. “She had a lot of plans, and it’s not fair the way she left. You know? That someone just took her life like that.”
Aceves identified her daughter, 18-year-old Kaitlyn Valdovinos, as the victim in a Friday shooting.
Police said its investigators responded to a wellness check on Logan Lane and Nemaha Way and found two women with gunshot wounds. One – later identified as Kaitlyn Valdovinos – was pronounced dead at the scene. The other woman is in the hospital recovering from her injuries.
“I’m empty,” Aceves said. “I don’t know what to feel.”
Aceves said she spoke to her daughter Thursday evening over FaceTime and that she told her mother she was heading out to go shopping with a friend. The parents believe she was shot sometime between 4 and 5 a.m. after they said Kaitlyn texted a cousin for help at 4:05 a.m.
“There’s a lot of questions, and we don’t have answers,” Aceves said.
Aceves and David said they went to the neighborhood near Ernie Shropshire Park, near where the shooting happened, on Sunday to speak with neighbors. They thanked those who had already spoken with investigators.
“I really appreciate all the neighbors helping out,” David said. “We just ask to go through their cameras and see if they spot anything, any little detail that’s going to help the police department find the person that did it.”
A Stockton Police Department spokesperson said Sunday that investigators are going through surveillance and working to gather information on a possible suspect.
The spokesperson also said that investigators determined a gold vehicle at the scene Friday “was associated with the victims” and technicians were continuing to process it for evidence.
Aceves said her daughter loved her family, makeup and long nails, baking and working hard. Kaitlyn Valdovinos was learning to drive and saving money to buy her own car, she said. She was going to turn 19 years old in May.
“I want people to come forward,” Aceves said.
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