STOCKTON — Homicide detectives have arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of robbery and murder, alleging that he shot and killed Stockton rapper James Gorman Jr., 30, Sunday afternoon while out of juvenile hall on a weekend pass, authorities said.
Gorman sustained multiple gunshot wounds shortly after noon Sunday in the 9300 block of Dalewood Drive, police said. Investigators believe Gorman was shot when he confronted two teens who robbed two of his children while they were playing football at a park earlier in the day, said Officer Joe Silva, a spokesman for the Stockton Police Department.
Detectives believe the 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy were responsible for the robbery that preceded the shooting, Silva said. The 17-year-old was arrested on suspicion of robbery, police said. The names of the teens have not been released because they are minors, but the 16-year-old could be identified if the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office elects to try him as an adult.
Investigators identified the 16-year-old as the gunman and then learned that he carried out the shooting while temporarily released from juvenile hall, where he was being held on an unrelated charge, Silva said. He had returned to custody when homicide detectives arrested him in connection with Gorman’s death, Silva said.
“It lifts a lot of weight just knowing that the people who were responsible for this recklessness are not running around free and capable of doing the same thing to somebody else,” said Dejon Underdue, 33, Gorman’s friend and music producer. “It’s a big sigh of relief. It still doesn’t change the fact that there’s a family member, a brother and a son who is no longer with us, but it is a good feeling that there is some type of closure.”
Gorman was a convicted felon who served time in prison and spent the past seven years on parole. On Friday, two days before the deadly shooting, he received a letter from the state notifying him that he had completed his parole.
Gorman, who was known by the stage name of “Rrari,” planned to use his newfound freedom to perform and promote his music, family and friends said. He was concerned with social issues and wrote a song in memory of James Rivera Jr., 16, who escaped from juvenile hall and committed a number of violent crimes before he was shot and killed by Stockton police during a pursuit in 2010.
Gorman grew up in a family that was besieged by violence, loved ones said. His aunt, Virnessa Gorman, was murdered in the early 1990s, his best friend was killed in a drive-by shooting more than a decade ago, and his father was convicted of killing a woman with a baseball bat in 2005.
Gorman is survived by six children, whose ages range from about 6 months to 15 years old.
