Amid an escalation in gang violence in small California towns, families have usually been spared. But gangs there are increasingly working with violent Mexican cartels.
Within the first 24 days of this year, 70 people have been killed in 39 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an institute tracking shootings in the country.
The slaying of six people, including an infant, highlights how parts of the San Joaquin Valley have become some of the most violent places in California.
A shooter stood over a 16-year-old mother clutching her 10-month-old baby and killed them both in a brazen attack in a central California farming community that left six dead. That s