Is serial killer in Stockton, California also 'Duck Walk Killer' who terrorized Rogers Park?
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police in Stockton, California are working with Chicago Police to determine whether a serial killer in Stockton is the same man who shot and killed two people in cold blood in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood in 2018.
CBS 13 in Sacramento first broke this story with the help of CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards, who confirmed this information with his police sources. Police released surveillance video of the California suspect earlier this month.
However, on Friday morning, a Stockton police spokesman said investigators there have been in contact with Chicago police but as of now there is no connection. A Chicago Police Department spokesperson also said, for now, there does not appear to be a connection.
"We are aware of the Stockton Police Department investigations and are in contact with their detectives. At this time, we do not believe there is a link in these investigations," CPD spokesperson Maggie Huynh said in an email.
The Stockton serial killer, who, according to police, has taken the lives of six people and injured a seventh in Stockton and Oakland, California, has a city on edge as they wonder who might be next. All of the victims were shot, and police say ballistics evidence linked the same man to the shootings.
Last week, police released video surveillance footage of the man they believe is the killer and asked residents to pay attention to his gait. His stride is uneven and walks with his hands in his pockets.
After the surveillance video was released, Edwards called CBS 13 in Sacramento and told them about the Rogers Park murders.
Two men – Eliyahu Moscowitz and Douglass Watts – were killed in a period of about 36 hours in the fall of 2018.
First, Watts, 73, was shot and killed on the morning Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, while walking his two dogs in the 1400 block of West Sherwin Avenue.
On the night of Monday, Oct. 1, 2018, Moscowitz, 24, was walking down the bike path on the 1100 block of West Lunt Avenue when someone shot him. Moscowitz worked at an Evanston Jewel grocery store.
Both victims had been shot in the head, and then-Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said in the days after the shooting that ballistics tests confirmed shell casings from both shootings came from the same gun.
The masked gunman was caught on surveillance video, and police have said he has a distinct duck walk or limp. The suspect has been referred to as the Duck Walk Killer.
He has not been seen since.
"This double murder that happened struck a chord in Chicago -- no one's forgotten about it, and we have a lot of crime in Chicago," CBS 2's Edwards told CBS 13 Sacramento.
CBS 13 compared surveillance videos of the suspects, and the similarities between the men are striking. Both were wearing all black, their heads and faces covered, and their walk is almost exactly alike.
"Over and over and over we heard 'pay attention to the gait, the gait...the walk' and it struck a chord. This week, when detectives in Chicago saw the video out of Northern California, and again it was 'pay attention to the gait," Edwards told the station.
Now, both police departments are trying to determine whether the killers are the same person.
"My sources tell me high-level conversations are going on," Edwards told CBS 13. "There is an absolute open book sharing of information."
