India, Dec. 2 -- The mass shooting in Stockton, California, which resulted in the deaths of four individuals, including three children, took place when a toddler was slicing cake at her second birthday celebration, her mother sated.

The mother of the birthday girl, Patrice Williams, recounted that guests at the party immediately fell to the floor as soon as the gunfire erupted within the crowded banquet hall in Stockton on Saturday.

Opening up about the tragedy, she told Associated Press, "I actually thought it was my balloons popping. It was gunshots."

"It was just unexpected. I don't know what happened, and I'm just so shocked and lost," Williams added.

Three children, aged 8, 9, and 14, were killed alongside a 21-year-old, accordin...