Is serial killer in Stockton, Calif. also Chicago's "Duck Walk Killer"?
Police in Stockton, California are working directly 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 Chicago reports.
CBS Sacramento's Laura Haefeli first broke this story with the help of CBS Chicago's Brad Edwards, who confirmed it with his police sources.
The Stockton serial killer, who, according to police, has taken the lives of six people and injured a seventh in Stockton and Oakland, has a city on edge as they wonder who might be next.
All 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 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 fatally shot on Sept. 30, 2018, while walking his two dogs.
The next night, Moscowitz was walking down a bike path when someone shot him. Moscowitz worked at a grocery store.
Both victims were 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 hasn't 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 Chicago's Edwards told CBS Sacramento.
CBS Sacramento compared surveillance videos of the suspects, and the similarities between the men are striking. Both are wearing all black, their heads and faces are 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, again it was 'pay attention to the gait," Edwards said.
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 Sacramento. "There is an absolute open book sharing of information."
