Update: Stockton serial killer 'on a mission'; Oakland slaying among his victims
STOCKTON — Ballistics tests have linked the fatal shootings of six men and the wounding of one woman in California — all potentially at the hands of a serial killer — in crimes going back more than a year, police said.
On Tuesday, Stockton police released a surveillance video of a person of interest in the case. Police Chief Stanley McFadden said at a press conference that while the view is from behind, he wanted the public to note the person's distinctive, upright posture and uneven stride.
McFadden said the department did not have any evidence directly linking a suspect to any of the crimes, aside from the ballistics reports that suggested the same shooter was involved in the various killings.
"We don't know what the motive is. What we do believe is that it's mission-oriented," McFadden said. "This person's on a mission."
The woman who survived an attack in April 2021 described the suspect as a male of unknown race, 5'10" to 6', thin build, wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, and dark-colored pants. The person was also wearing an all-black COVID-style mask.
Stockton City Manager Harry Black said Tuesday a reward for information leading to an arrest increased to $125,000, which includes a $25,000 donation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Authorities last week announced that five men in Stockton had been slain in recent months, ambushed and shot to death alone in the dark.
Late Monday, police said two additional cases last year — a man's death in Oakland and the non-fatal shooting of a woman in Stockton — had been tied to those killings.
"It definitely meets the definition of a serial killer," said Stockton Police Officer Joseph Silva. "What makes this different is the shooter is just looking for an opportunity, and unfortunately our victims were alone in a dark area."
In the fatal Stockton cases, none of the men was robbed or beaten before the killings — which all took place within a radius of a few square miles between July 8 and Sept. 27 — and none appeared to have known each other, Silva said. The shootings also do not seem to be related to gangs or drugs.
The other Stockton crime — in which a 46-year-old woman was shot but survived her injuries — occurred April 16, 2021, around 3:20 a.m., police said. The woman was also alone at the time.
The Oakland shooting death was of 39-year-old Juan Serrano Vazquez who was killed on April 10, 2021. The man was shot to death around 4:15 a.m. It was not immediately clear whether the man was also unaccompanied when he was killed.
Central Valley law enforcement is teaming up with the feds and other agencies.
"They won't just look at this thing with blinders on because they want to make sure that they look at all possibilities. What you don't want to do is put a warning out to a group of people and the next thing you know the person is on the other side of the state and they're murdering people of another group," said KPIX 5 security analyst Jeff Harp.
Harp, a former FBI agent, said updated technology could assist in the case.
"The problem is they don't know exactly what they're looking at, they don't know are these similarities, are these anomalies, are these innocent people," he added. " Where are the witnesses? It's really hard to imagine that there hasn't been a witness that saw something peculiar. They didn't have to see the killing, but to see something peculiar."
Stockton Police say they're getting hundreds of daily tips. There is now a $125,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said the killer seems to prey on people who are alone out on dark streets.
"Based upon the force and use of violence in this case this is a person who knows what they're doing," said Verber Salazar. "They are not afraid to do it, and unfortunately and in some awful way they must be enjoying it because they keep doing it again and again. And that is frightening."
Verber Salazar said she had been in touch with law enforcement agencies from across the country as they compare evidence from Stockton to local cases to see if there may be additional victims elsewhere in the state and the US.
"I can't tell you how difficult this is as a community to have somebody do something like this, someone who is just literally walking up and killing innocent people," Verber Salazar said.
McFadden said his department had already received hundreds of tips and was relying on help from other agencies to comb through them.
The San Joaquin County's Office of the Medical Examiner identified the Stockton victims on Monday as Paul Yaw, 35, who was killed on July 8; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who died on Aug. 11; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, who died on Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who was killed on Sept. 21 and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54.
Lopez was shot shortly before 2 a.m. on Sept. 27 in a residential area just north of downtown.
He "was just a person who was out here at the wrong place, at the wrong time, at the wrong circumstance," his brother, Jerry Lopez, told KXTV-TV. "It's hard to process that this has happened."
There may even be multiple people involved in the violence.
"To be honest, we just don't know," Silva said. "This person or people who are out doing this, they are definitely very bold and brazen."
Police said four of the Stockton homicide victims were walking alone and a fifth was in a parked car when they were killed in the evening or early morning hours.
