Patrice Williams, who was hosting a party for her daughter where gunfire broke out, speaks during an interview in Stockton, Calif., Monday. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Family members were getting ready to cut the cake at a toddler’s birthday party when the gunfire started inside a banquet hall packed with relatives and friends over the weekend in California.

“I actually thought it was my balloons popping. It was gunshots,” said Patrice Williams, the birthday girl’s mother.

Her daughter, who turned 2, was uninjured. But Williams told The Associated Press on Monday that her sister, a cousin and three of her friends were shot in the burst of gunfire Saturday evening in Stockton.

Three children ages 8, 9 and 14 and a 21-year-old were killed in the hall where at least 100 p

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