STOCKTON— Hector Roach was in a race with his draining cellphone battery.
"I've been calling everyone, but there sure is nobody here, and now I have no bars."
He had a decision to make: cancel the night walk or go it alone.
In an attempt to quell the shootings that have plagued California's second-most-violent city, church members in the hardest-hit neighborhoods — operating in groups of no fewer than three — have been going up to youths hanging out on street corners and parking lots. "Hey, how are you doing?" they ask. "Do you like the neighborhood the way it is?" "What would you like to see different?"
Now, standing outside the Greater White Rose Church of God in Christ, under a white magnolia tree, Roach saw a woman coming down the street pushing a stroller, followed by two little girls on bicycles.
"You would have never seen that six months ago," said Roach, a 50-year-old former gang leader. "That street corner over there was full of bangers. People on this street stayed locked up in their houses."
But every week, Roach and his church friends had been going to that corner for a chat. "We were consistent. That's the key," he said.
Eventually the men left. They still gather just a few blocks away, dealing drugs, "but one street makes a difference," Roach said.
"Let's go."
With that, he tossed out the training manual and set off on an evening's journey that would wind him through many lives in South Stockton.
Three blocks down on Pilgrim Street is the tidy stucco home where 18-year-old Travae Vance lived until he was shot in the head. His was the 77th homicide investigated by Stockton police and the San Joaquin County sheriff's office in 2012, a year that saw 88 slayings.
"He was a nice kid, friendly. He'd started coming to our church," Roach said.
Around the corner, the parking lot of the Grand Save Market is the neighborhood hangout.
"Don't think this is just the spot to drink and smoke and sell," said Robert Latin, 51. "This is where people have been coming to tell stories — mostly lies, but with lots of truth — for 60, 70 years. Come here after church. You'll see grandfathers in their Sunday best."
There have been five shootings in the parking lot and immediate area in three years, according to police records. Latin said that sounded right — if you count only the shootings where someone called the cops.
Menione Moore arrived to buy apple juice for the baby she's trying to adopt. It's her cousin's daughter, and if Moore doesn't get custody, the 7-month-old could end up in foster care.
The 21-year-old with bright eyes, hair pulled back in a ponytail, had been going to community college. But she stopped in order to look for work and take care of the baby.
"I've got this covered," Moore said. "I'm going to have a different life. For me and her. I'm going to make sure she has someone."
She greeted by name every person who passed — including the men with gang tattoos.
"We all grew up together," she said. "When there's gunshots, I just try to stay out of the way. When you live here, it's just normal. Nothing shocks. I never expected to live to 18."
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