Tyrone White told his wife Ashlee Pruitt that he was just heading down the street to see a friend when he stepped out the door Tuesday night.

He made it half-a-block before a small white car pulled up alongside and shot him three times on his left side, knocking him down to the sidewalk as he screamed out in pain.

Pruitt heard the shots – which she said were louder than when an errant stranger was shot on her front lawn last month – and when she stepped out off her front porch saw him struggling to get up. His screams are something that she’ll never forget.

“He was about right here,” she said, pointing out the section of the sidewalk that he nearly bled-out on while waiting for help to arrive. “I’ve never heard him scream like that before.”

White is now fighting for his life.

Friends and family members are pulling together to pray for White’s recovery and an end to the violence that has erupted in Manteca in the last several months. It climaxed this week with both the shooting in front of her Virginia Street home and another shooting that left five people, including a 3-year-old girl and a pregnant woman, with gunshot wounds.

With white candles in their hands, several dozen people stood in front of that stretch of sidewalk on Virginia Street Friday night to pray for a man they say doted on his kids and spent most of his time by their side.

Miguel Ramirez, whose son grew up with White, called the violence senseless as he wondered what Manteca Police are doing to curb the recent spike that has terrorized neighborhoods and yielded very few, if any, arrests.

“I went to the police to see if they could come down here tonight just so that nothing happens and I wanted everybody to feel safe and I didn’t get much of a response,” Ramirez said – adding that he’s placed a picture of his son, who recently joined the Army, beside the hospital bed of his childhood friend so he knows that he’s there in spirit. “It’s frustrating. You should be able to feel safe in your community and in your own living room.”

And Barbara Larson has seen the violence on both ends.

While she chatted with family members about White’s status Friday – he’s still in critical condition but he’s stabilizing and slowly becoming more alert and aware – her home over on Willow Avenue sat vacant out of fear of catching a stray bullet from another shooting.

Not enough, Larson says, is being done to curb the recent outbreak in violence that she sees as being connected.

“It was a white car that shot up Las Casuelas and it was a white car that came and did this,” she said. “For three years I didn’t open my windows because of everything that went down near that (Southside)  park, and then it all kind of stopped. Now it has started up again and people can’t walk down the street minding their own business without getting shot.

“We have all of these cuts to the budget and now people don’t feel safe. And these events are giving them reason to feel that way.”

Pruitt just wants to feel safe in her own home.

“We’re scared – nervous just to sit there in the living room. Of course you feel you’re not safe when kids are out there getting shot,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going on. They say that it’s not gang related – what is it then?”

Those wishing to make donations to assist the family can do so by calling (209) 275-3507 or (209) 925-7208.