On April 18, 15-year-old student Alycia “Lala” Reynaga was fatally stabbed on the Stagg High School campus in Stockton in what police call a random act by 52-year-old Anthony Gray.
Gray drove through the open gates of the school and parked. Gray then attempted to grab two other girls from the school parking lot, and when he failed, repeatedly stabbed Reynaga, according to various news sources.
“It was a very tragic, very senseless incident,” said San Joaquin Delta College District Police Chief Robert DiPiero.
Gray’s first court appearance was on April 20, where he was arraigned on multiple charges including first-degree murder. Gray had prior convictions in Northern California including a felony in 1989 for receiving stolen property, a conviction in 1990 for the purchase of a controlled substance, and a 2012 conviction of a misdemeanor assault with force and felony battery against a police officer, according to San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar.
Gray faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, said Salazar.
At a Board of Trustees meeting on April 19, after a moment of silence, Trustee Jennet Stebbins made a note to thank the actions of the San Joaquin Delta College District Police.
“Our involvement was very minimal,” said DiPiero. “Right after we became aware of the incident that occured at Stagg, I reached out to their school district chief just in terms of what kind of assistance they needed. We sent staff over just so that when students got out of school, they had additional officers on hand so hopefully the students feel safe considering what happened.”
DiPiero said the response is common among departments.
“A lot of the departments in the county, whenever there are incidents, we respond and assist each other. We had officers respond to the Cleveland School shooting in 1989. In terms of when we’ve had certain incidents here on campus, we’ve had other agencies respond to assist us. We help each other out, whenever we have some sort of critical incident.”
In Fall 2021, there was talk of a plan to increase campus safety by adding fencing around core parts of the school. Delta College has gates that lock around a large part of the campus, but the Dolores Huerta Plaza is open to foot traffic from North Burke Bradley Drive and the frontage road off of Pacific Avenue.
At a Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 5, 2021 former Vice President of Administrative Services Dr. Amanda Preston Nelson made a comment that the fencing “should be up within the next couple of months.”
However, the fencing plan around the Delta campus seems to have been canceled.
“From what I understand, It’s not happening. The police department had been a part of the project in terms of recommendations for locations. Part of the project also involved additional cameras as well. The decision was made not to continue on with the fencing but to work with us to improve the security cameras we have, and adding cameras onto it,” said DiPiero.
That leaves Delta with a partially open campus. There are steps students can take to stay vigilant.
“If you see someone being harassed, what if the next person to be harassed is your friend. Support your fellow students. Support your colleagues. If you see something, say something,” said DiPiero.
In addition, the District Police website includes information about Citizen Rims, which are publicly available data that can tell what calls to the police were about within a certain time period.
The Mustang Alert or RAVE Guardian app is also a useful tool to have.
“We send out emergency messages from there. It’s an emergency notification system. What that entails is if we were to have an active shooter of fire on campus or an earthquake, we’d send out an emergency notification via the Mustang Alert. There’s an app that goes along with it for your phone called the Guardian app. That has safety information there, contacts for police dispatch,” said DiPiero.
Reynaga’s funeral was held on Wednesday, May 4 at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton. A GoFundMe continues to garner donations for Reynaga’s family at https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraiser-for-the-family-of-alicia-reynega.