George Lee, 65, a male and identified as White/Caucasian, was shot on the morning of June 20, 2025, in Vallejo's Crest neighborhood and died at the scene. Police were called at about 9:03 a.m. to the 2100 block of Griffin Drive, where officers found the 65-year-old George Lee with at least one gunshot wound and attempted life-saving measures before he was pronounced dead. The Solano County Coroner's Office identified the victim as George Lee of Vallejo.
Authorities said it was the city's seventh homicide of the year at that point.
Neighbors awoke to sirens and police tape stretching behind Fairgrounds Plaza, a familiar landmark in a corridor recently rattled by violence. Days later, community members and local leaders gathered for a vigil, decrying the gunfire that had taken the life of George Lee, age 65, and calling for more resources to interrupt cycles of trauma in the Crest. The grief at the gathering echoed the anxiety of a neighborhood that had already seen multiple shootings earlier in the year.
In the weeks that followed, detectives moved from canvassing to an arrest. On July 7, officers encountered 56-year-old Vallejo resident Erick Laton Stewart Sr. on the 1600 block of Fairgrounds Drive. When contacted, he allegedly ran; officers arrested him on a felony probation-violation warrant and recovered a loaded, unregistered firearm along his flight path. By July 14, prosecutors had charged Stewart with murder and felony firearm possession in the killing of George Lee, age 65; he was booked into the Solano County Jail and held without bail while represented by the Solano County Public Defender's Office.
Early reports from the day of the shooting offered few immediate answers about motive, and investigators asked anyone with information to contact detectives or the anonymous tip line. As the case progressed into midsummer with a named suspect in custody, the official narrative remained focused on methodical evidence-gathering around the Crest, even as candles burned online and in person for George Lee, 65, whose death marked another painful entry in Vallejo's ledger of loss.
Records aggregating homicide cases list George Lee, 65, male, with his race recorded as White/Caucasian, and place his death in Vallejo on June 20, 2025, aligning with police and local reporting. Those same records cross-reference the initial news alerts that documented the scene on Griffin Drive and the subsequent identification by the coroner.
