STOCKTON- City Councilmember Christina Fugazi is known for her community involvement, especially in the district she represents. District 5 consists of central Stockton as well as parts of the east and south sides of the city. Today shortly after 10am, three masked robbers entered Doug’s El Dorado Drug Store in south east Stockton on Mariposa Road. During the robbery one of the employees began shooting at the would be robbers and the robbers fired back. Luckily no one was injured, but Fugazi, also a school teacher, released a statement revealing her five year old nephew and his grandmother were present during the robbery. According to her account on eof the robbers even pushed the grandmother while entering the store:
“One step forward, one step back.
At last night’s council meeting, a Stockton resident was very upset about the trash and the violent crime in District 5. He felt that it was disproportionately worse in District 5 more than any other district in the city. I have to admit that I agree with this man’s sentiments. While there is trash and crime throughout our city, it feels like the oldest part is often the most challenging part of the city.
Today, a locally owned pharmacy was robbed at gunpoint. This is the 2nd such robbery in 7 days at two different pharmacies. Both are in my district and both had people I personally know in the store when it happened. As for today’s, my 5 year old nephew saw the gunman enter and push his grandmother back into the store as she was exiting. She is a former employee of the Stockton Police Department, so she quickly got on the floor and began to crawl down an isle away from the armed robber. He fired 4 rounds when he was in the pharmacy and although she was trained to deal with this type of situation, until you are actually in it, you don’t know what you would do. As she shared the story with me, she said that she will never be able to get that event out of her mind and neither will my nephew.
Is there a single answer to fixing the level of crime in our city? Does this gunman have a drug problem, a money problem, an issue with knowing the difference between right and wrong, what? More police? More programs? More jobs? What I do know is that we have to work together as a community. We need to build relationships with our neighbors, patrons, service providers, etc. and with that comes mutual trust and respect. I think that is a good place to start. Show your fellow human being a little more kindness and hopefully they will pass it on.”
