Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A mass gang-related shooting occurred at a child’s birthday party in the Central Valley just north of Stockton Saturday evening, killing four people — including 3 children — and injuring 11 others. There are reportedly multiple suspects.

Update: Per Sacramento's Fox40, a total of 15 victims were shot, and the four who died were ages 8, 9, 14, and 21. Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi confirmed the shooting was gang-related.

Update 2: Per the Chronicle, the gathering consisted of 100 to 150 people. Multiple suspects reportedly began shooting inside the banquet hall and continued shooting as they made their way outside. At least one of the surviving victims is in critical condition.

As KTVU reports, the shooting happened just before 6 pm Saturday at a banquet hall on the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue in San Joaquin County, north of Stockton, in a suspected targeted incident, per KGO. In an announcement, Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee initially referred to the incident as taking place at an ice cream shop, but authorities later clarified it happened near a Dairy Queen and other businesses, per Bay Area News Group.

“A birthday party should never be a place where families fear for their lives,” Vice Mayor Lee said, per Bay Area News Group. “Violence touched my life as a young person, and seeing our own children, parents and neighbors go through this shakes me deeply. Stockton is my home. These are our families. This is our community.”

Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County sheriff’s office, confirmed that both children and adults had been shot.

“This is a very active and ongoing investigation, and information remains limited,” San Joaquin County Sheriff’s officials said on social media Saturday night. “Early indications suggest this may be a targeted incident, and investigators are exploring all possibilities. Detectives are actively working to determine the circumstances leading up to this tragedy.”

Per Sacramento’s KCRA, the suspect remains at large. The Stockton Police Department, Manteca Police Department, and the FBI are also investigating.

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Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A luxury riverboat cruise, the first of its kind in the Bay Area in eight decades, raised some eyebrows when it was first announced last year. And it doesn't sound like it had too many takers.

American Cruise Lines, a company that offers riverboat cruises on the Mississippi River and up the New England coast among other trip, announced excursions from San Francisco last summer aboard the American Jazz. The trips were to take passengers from the Bay up the Sacramento River Delta to Stockton, stopping off there to visit a couple of sites, and then cruising back to Sacramento and up the Napa River for some wine tasting.

It was the eye-popping price tag for these cruises — $6,000 per person and going up to nearly $12,000 per person for a "grand suite" — that caught SFist's attention, given that the Delta ain't exactly the Danube or the Seine when it comes to sightseeing or ports of call. But they claimed to have a good chef!

Now, as the Chronicle reports, American Cruise Lines is pausing all Sacramento River cruises indefinitely and at least through 2024 after only four excursions earlier this year.

The company maintains in a statement that the four voyages were "a success" and "received a warm welcome from all the communities and towns visited along the itinerary.” But reading between the lines, the demand must not have been too strong or they'd still be doing them.

They said they were still considering another round in 2025.

One disappointment for passengers was likely the fact that the American Jazz did not, as planned, begin and end its journeys in San Francisco. As Sacramento's Fox 40 reported in April, they had to shift the itinerary to begin and end in Sacramento due to a docking issue in the Bay — and passengers only got one afternoon, on Day 3, to do any excursions in San Francisco, with Days 1, 7, and 8 all in Sacramento.

The ship had four departure dates in 2023 — March 3, 10, 17 and 24 — with eight-day voyages beginning on each of those days. And they only had a few more of these Sacramento-Stockton-Napa cruises planned in August 2024, but those have been called off.

The boat moved on to do a series of summer cruises on the Columbia and Snake rivers in Washington and Oregon, and beyond.

Previously: Company Launching Pricy Riverboat Cruise From SF to... Stockton?

Natasha LaTour was homeless and addicted to meth and lingering in a shadowy part of Stockton next to train tracks around 3 a.m. when a stranger approached, his clothes seeming to hang off him, and fired eight or ten shots at her.

She figures she was chosen as his third victim because she was alone, no witnesses anywhere nearby.

"It felt like if someone was throwing marbles at you or something like that … with just little pings,” LaTour tells CNN in a new interview. “Then there’s the, ‘Oh my gosh, this is it.’ There’s a searing burn, and then there’s an ache."

LaTour says she fell to the ground, and despite multiple wounds, she managed to push herself about 20 yards to a nearby street, where she hoped someone, or a passing car, would see her. Finally someone did, and an ambulance arrived. LaTour's last memory is of the ambulance having to wait for a train to pass before it could take her to the ER. She woke up four days later, having lost consciousness from the trauma and loss of blood.

Now, with shrapnel still in her and showing the scars of bullet wounds, LaTour is eager to tell her story to CNN. And, she says, she's been sober ever since, having felt the presence of God helping her to survive the ordeal.

The shooting happened on the morning of April 16, 2021. We learned last month via new charging documents that the accused shooter, 43-year-old Wesley Brownlee, was allegedly in Oakland — his hometown — earlier that night, fatally shooting a homeless man in a driveway in East Oakland. That man, Brownlee's seventh known victim, was 39-year-old Mervin Harmon.

LaTour, 42, believes that Stockton police already knew they were dealing with a serial killer when she was shot, or sometime shortly there after. Brownlee had, a week earlier, allegedly shot 39-year-old Juan Vasquez Serrano in Oakland. Ballistics evidence would ultimately link all three shootings, and then, as far as we know, the killer went quiet for 15 months, going on a spree last summer and killing five more men in Stockton starting in July 2022, mostly in shadowy locations with no surveillance, under cover of darkness.

Brownlee wouldn't ultimately be arrested until October, after the story had made national news, and with police conducting a sting because they already had some leads on who to follow. He now faces seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for the shooting of LaTour. He's set to be arraigned next week, on January 17.

Astonishingly, as LaTour tells CNN, the only interview Stockton police ever did with her was while she was bleeding on the street. After over a week in the hospital LaTour says she sought out the investigating officer on her case, but he never followed up with her. We now learn, per CNN, that officer has left the department for a job elsewhere, and it's not clear if this investigative failure had something to do with it.

"Everybody that died after me didn’t have to," LaTour tells CNN. She says that when police released a grainy surveillance image of their suspect from behind, she immediately recognized the slender figure, clothes hanging off him, who approached her a year and a half earlier.

In an earlier interview with 209 Times last fall, LaTour said she felt she'd been treated like "trash" by Stockton police. "They treated me as if it was a drug deal gone bad. As if I knew something that I wasn’t sharing," LaTour said. "Throughout this process, ever since April, ever since I got out of the hospital, it was constantly me trying to reach them. They assisted me not at all."

LaTour says that Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden offered her an apology recently at a vigil for victims.

Joe Silva, public information officer for the Stockton Police Department, tells CNN, "The chief and I apologized to her and the reason for that was because she’s a victim of a violent crime and she was apologized to because of a follow up that was not conducted during her investigation."

It remains unclear at what point Stockton police new they were dealing with a likely serial killer, but five fatal shootings had to occur within a two-mile radius in Stockton before they went public and sought help identifying the killer. This is not to mention the two earlier shootings that were in the jurisdiction of Oakland police.

LaTour, for her part, says she's grateful to be alive and to be sober.

"I forgive Wesley Brownlee fully,” said LaTour of the prime suspect. But, she adds, “I’m not saying you should trust me in a room with him. I have tried to hate him. God won’t let me.”

Previously: Stockton Serial Killer Suspect Accused Of Seventh Murder, Which Occurred In Oakland

Photo via Facebook

More charges were filed Tuesday in the case against Wesley Brownlee, the 43-year-old Stockton man accused in a string of killings in both Oakland and Stockton, and among them is one new name that had previously not been released.

Brownlee was arrested in mid-October, in the early morning hours of a Saturday, when he appeared to be out on the hunt for a new victim, armed with a gun that police say had been linked to all the murders. The pattern of the serial killings to date had been random late-night shootings, primarily within a few miles of where Brownlee was living in Stockton, several of them targeting homeless men and one woman.

Five of the fatal shootings took place this past summer in Stockton, but two others that we knew of had occurred in April 2021 — one, the April 10th fatal shooting of 39-year-old Juan Vasquez Serrano, a homeless man in Oakland; and the other, a non-fatal shooting that left his only known surviving victim, Natasha LaTour, a 42-year-old homeless woman in Stockton.

Now we are learning that the same night he allegedly shot LaTour, he had allegedly been in Oakland a couple hours earlier, and Brownlee has now been charged with the murder of 39-year-old Mervin Harmon.

Harmon appears to be the victim described in this report from the East Bay Times — but the charging documents filed Tuesday do not give us any details of his murder. Per the news report, a 39-year-old man was fatally shot around 1:17 a.m. on April 16, 2021 in a driveway in Oakland's Melrose District, on the 6200 block of Bromley Avenue. The age, date, and timing of the murder match the charge against Brownlee, which involves Harmon, and which occurred in Alameda County on April 16.

That would mean that after shooting Harmon, Brownlee would have traveled to Stockton, where LaTour was shot while inside her tent two hours later, around 3:20 a.m. on April 16.

Both shootings occurred six days after the killing of Vasquez Serrano, and no other murders have been tied to Brownlee between April 2021 and July 2022.

As ABC 10 reports, Brownlee was further charged with three other murders on Tuesday, bringing the total number of murder charges against him to six. He was also charged with the July 8, 2022 shooting death of 35-year-old Paul Yaw in Stockton; the August 11, 2022 murder of 43-year-old Salvador Debudey Jr. in Stockton; and the earlier murder of Vasquez Serrano. The San Joaquin DA's office had previously charged Brownlee with the murders of 52-year-old Juan Carlos Carranza Cruz, 21-year-old Jonathan Rodriguez Hernandez, and 54-year-old Lawrence Lopez Sr.

And he has been charged with the attempted murder of Ms. LaTour, and all of the charges come with enhancements for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and for committing multiple murders.

"The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office continues to collaborate with our local law enforcement agencies to ensure justice for these victims,” said District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar in a statement. "We would like to thank the community for their support and law enforcement for their diligent investigation and apprehension of the suspect."

It remains to be seen if more unsolved killings may get linked to Brownlee before he ultimately goes to trial.

The apparently linked serial killings were first revealed to the public by Stockton police in early October, and it was through a tip from the public that they began surveiling Brownlee and made the arrest on October 15. Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said that officers observed Brownlee, in the late-night hours of October 14/15, "stopping, looking around and moving again" through dark areas and parks in Stockton. And McFadden asserted, "He was on a mission to kill. He was out hunting."

Those, among other statements, have been called "inflammatory" by Brownlee's public defender, who will face an uphill battle defending him as these charges continue to mount.

Previously: Stockton Serial Killer Suspect Appears In Court, Will Remain Jailed Without Bail

43-year-old Wesley Brownlee, the suspect in a string of killings in Stockton this past summer as well as another last year in Oakland, made another court appearance Monday morning but did not enter a plea.

Brownlee was arrested one month ago, on the morning of October 15, not long after Stockton police went public with the fact that they had evidence linking a string of five random murders on the streets of the city. Three of the victims, including a sixth killed in Oakland, were homeless, and the Stockton killings all took place at night in the same five-mile radius.

As the Chronicle reports, Brownlee appeared in court Monday as he faces first-degree murder charges in the killings of 21-year-old Jonathan Rodriguez Hernandez, 52-year-old Juan Carlos Carranza Cruz, and 54-year-old Lawrence Lopez Sr. They were the last three victims in a spree, killed between August 30 and September 27, and more charges are likely to follow.

Brownlee is also suspected of killing 35-year-old Paul Alexander Yaw and 43-year-old Salvador William Debudey Jr. earlier in the summer, and 39-year-old Juan Vasquez Serrano, who was killed in Oakland on April 10, 2021.

Brownlee's arraignment has now been postponed until January. As KCRA notes, this is because there are more charges to come.

San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber-Salazar, in announcing the charges against Brownlee, said the investigation was ongoing and "in no way does our charging determination today end or conclude this investigation. We have more work to do."

The FBI is continuing to investigate as well, operating on the suspicion that Brownlee — who had worked for years as a trucker — may have committed murders elsewhere that have gone unsolved. It is not clear what other jurisdictions they may be looking at, but a news station in Chicago floated the idea that Brownlee could be Chicago's "Duck Walk Killer," who committed two unsolved murders in 2018. So far, police in Stockton and Chicago have said publicly that they have already ruled out this possibility.

Brownlee, who grew up in Oakland, had multiple arrests and some jail time on his record, dating back to his teen years in the 1990s. One of the charges against him pertains to being a felon in possession of a weapon.

A public defender has already tried to argue for a gag order for law enforcement in the case, but a judge in Stockton ruled against this motion, saying that any trial is likely years away, and there was no need for a gag order at this time.

All previous coverage of the Stockton murders here.

It's sort of inevitable that cops who think they nabbed a serial killer after six killings occurred are going to make inflammatory statements. But serial killer suspect Wesley Brownlee is still technically a suspect, he has not entered a plea, and his public defender is doing her best to get him a fair trial.

It made the national news last week when suspected serial killer Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested in Stockton, allegedly "out hunting" for a seventh victim, and "on a mission to kill," as Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said after the arrest. Brownlee was caught with a ghost gun that police say is traceable to the six victims — five in Stockton and one last year in Oakland — and had a dark face mask around his neck, and police said they had tailed him as he appeared to be seeking a victim late on a Friday night in Stockton.

But those statements about Brownlee by McFadden, and subsequent statements from San Joaquin County DA Tori Verber Salazar, are "inflammatory" according to Brownlee's attorney, public defender Allison Nobert. Nobert filed a motion Monday for a gag order that would prevent law enforcement from making further statements on the case to the media.

But, as Bay City News reports, the judge in the case, Judge Xapuri Villapudua, denied Nobert's motion, saying that further statements by investigators or police, at least for the time being, are unlikely to be prejudicial to a jury given how far out this trial is likely to be. Deputy District Attorney Elton Grau had argued that a gag order would hinder investigators at this stage.

"Here, we are in the very early stages, as Mr. Grau pointed out, trial is a year or more away," said Villapudua, per Bay City News. "We are also in the era of the 24-hour news cycle and it's highly likely that this case will not have the coverage that it's currently generating."

That seems optimistic, but for now there will be no gag order.

After the ruling, Judge Villapudua reportedly said, "My ruling does not prevent the [defense] from requesting a protective order in the future if she feels the need is arising."

Brownlee was formerly charged last week and he's expected back in court to enter a plea on November 14. He's been charged with three counts of first-degree murder, with more charges expected.

It's also come to light that Brownlee worked as an interstate truck driver — he had a curious arrest on his record from 2019 that had to do with failing to stop at a border crossing checkpoint in Arizona, so that explains that. It remains conceivable that unsolved murders in other jurisdictions that Brownlee was passing through could end up being tied to him.

As far as we know now, investigators believe Brownlee's first victim was 39-year-old Juan Vasquez Serrano, who was killed not far from Brownlee's childhood home in Oakland on April 10, 2021. Homeless woman Natasha LaTour, 46, the sole surviving victim, was shot in Stockton on April 16, 2021, six days after the Oakland killing.

Subsequent victims were all killed in more recent months, starting with Paul Yaw, 35, who was killed in Stockton on July 8, 2o22; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who was killed August 11; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, who was shot on August 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who was killed September 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who was killed September 27.

The tendency with serial-killer and mass-shooter cases alike is always to want to immediately try to psychoanalyze the suspect and get to the bottom of their motives. The answers are rarely satisfying, but with the Stockton serial killer suspect, Wesley Brownlee, this has already begun.

Brownlee was arrested early Saturday after being surveilled for some number of days by Stockton police. He was seen stalking some areas of the city in his car, allegedly "hunting" for a new victim. We quickly learned that he had a record of drug arrests and had done some time, and that all of the Stockton killings and the one in Oakland last year took place short distances from where he lived, or where relatives lived.

Bay Area News Group took a deeper dive into Brownlee's past, and his probation and court records, and found that he was born in San Francisco and raised primarily in an apartment on Seminary Avenue in Oakland — six blocks from where his first known victim, Juan Vasquez Serrano, was found in April 2021. It's not clear which of Brownlee's relatives, if any, were still living in the area last year, but Bay Area News Group found that Brownlee followed his mother to Stockton, after she moved there in the late 1990s.

Court records from the 90s show that Brownlee's brushes with the law began in 1994, just shy of his 15th birthday, when he and two friends were accused of assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He denied the accusation, blaming his friends, and his mother reportedly stood by him at the time.

Brownlee apparently became "very distressed," according to a probation officer at a later date, following the October 1995 shooting death of his brother Dale Brownlee, who was 17 at the time. The brother was shot on the 5700 block of East 16th Street in an apparent drug-related incident, according to police.

Brownlee would be diagnosed with a learning disability, he dropped out of high school in his junior year, and he would be arrested twice for selling crack cocaine in his Oakland neighborhood within a few years. A probation officer noted that he "apparently suffers both innate mental limitation and psychological stress over his brother’s 1995 shooting death." And, as Bay Area News Group reports, a juvenile court officer later noted, after he was put on house arrest, that his mother suffered from a chronic pain condition and "didn't notice" when he snuck out of the house.

There's a lull in Brownlee's criminal record between the early 2000s, after he was released from a two-year stint in San Quentin, and 2009, when he was arrested for a DUI, per the Sacramento Bee. And then in 2014, he was again arrested in his old neighborhood in Oakland for selling narcotics — about a block away from where his brother was killed 19 years earlier. There was an unspecified felony case in 2017 in San Joaquin County for which online records aren't available. And then in 2019, in a somewhat sketchy detail, Brownlee was detained at a border crossing in Arizona for failing to stop at a port of entry.

We also know he had two traffic infractions in the last year and a half, the most recent in June.

What drove Brownlee to kill five Latino men and one other man, several of them homeless at the time, may only be revealed if he confesses.

Stockton police chief Stanley McFadden noted on Monday, per ABC News, that Brownlee was methodical in his killings and in covering his tracks. "He didn't make many mistakes. We know he purposely stayed in the dark," McFadden said.

He is set to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.

Update: Brownlee has been charged in three out of the six killings he was linked to, and he's been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Previously: Stockton Serial Killer Suspect Did Not Stray Far From His and Relatives' Homes to Find Victims

We've learned a bit more information about suspected serial killer Wesley Brownlee since his arrest on Saturday, and it appears that several of his victims were killed within feet of either his home or the homes of relatives in Stockton.

Brownlee was taken into custody early Saturday after police had been following him for an unknown period of time. Stockton police say they homed in on Brownlee thanks to a tip, and they were surveilling his activities Friday night into Saturday morning, when they say he appeared to be actively "hunting" for a new victim.

Now we are learning that of his six alleged victims in Stockton, five of whom were killed and one female victim who survived, none were very far from residences associated with either Brownlee himself or his relatives.

ABC10 spoke with one alarmed neighbor who lives in the apartment complex where Brownlee lives, who says he now realizes that he has "locked eyes" with him on more than one occasion as he passed by. And one of Brownlee's alleged victims, 21-year-old Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, was shot in the parking lot of the complex, the Meridian Pointe Apartments, on August 30.

"It’s kind of crazy knowing it was that close," neighbor Jesse Evango tells ABC 10. Evango adds, "“I didn’t really interact with him that much, just see him walk past while I was outside sitting here on my porch. He didn’t say anything to me really, just walked by and did a head nod and just kept going."

Per ABC 10, the surveillance footage of a figure seen from behind that was widely circulated last week was taken at the Pacific Pointe Apartments, which is an address listed for one of Brownlee's relatives. That complex is just a few hundred feet from Manchester Avenue, where Brownlee allegedly killed 52-year-old Juan Cruz on September 21.

Three of the victims were killed within feet of one of these addresses associated with Brownlee, and all five of the men who were killed were within two miles of these addresses.

Stockton's mayor, Kevin Lincoln, spoke to reporters on Sunday morning and said that he shed a few tears of relief after hearing of Brownlee's arrest. "The city was able to sleep a little bit better last night,” Lincoln said, per KARE. “No resident of this city should have to walk around town looking over their shoulder in fear.”

Brownlee has a criminal record that includes several arrests and a DUI, and the Chronicle reported Monday that he has two felony drug arrests in Alameda County from two decades ago for which he served time.

Police in Stockton say they received about 100 tips per day after opening their tip line in the case, and one or multiple tips led directly to Brownlee's arrest. As KCRA reports, police have not determined whether the $125,000 in reward money will be split between multiple individuals.

Previously: Police: Serial Killer Suspect Arrested In Stockton While Out 'Hunting' For New Victim

Photo: Google Street View

Law enforcement said last week that the modus operandi of an apparent serial killer made him very likely to be caught, and on Saturday, Stockton police announced an arrest.

"We are sure we stopped another killing,” said Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden at a Saturday afternoon press conference. The arrest, McFadden said, happened at 2 a.m. Saturday, when police said they apprehended 43-year-old Wesley Brownlee "out hunting" for a seventh victim and "on a mission to kill."

Brownlee was pulled over while driving in Stockton, near Panella Park at Village Green Drive and Winslow Way, and he was wearing dark clothing, with a black face mask around his neck, and carrying a firearm.

Stockton police say that Brownlee has a criminal history and has lived in several cities near Stockton, but more details are yet to come. The Sacramento Bee describes him as a "longtime" resident of Stockton.

Brownlee's last known address, per the Bee, was an apartment at Knickerbocker Drive and Tam O’Shanter Drive, which is several feet away from one of the murders, the killing of 21-year-old Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez that took place on August 30.

"Based on tips coming into the department and Stockton Crime Stoppers, we were able to zero in on a possible suspect," McFadden said, per KPIX. "Our surveillance team followed this person while he was driving. We watched his patterns and determined early this morning he was on a mission to kill."

Police say they observed Brownlee engaging in "threatening behavior," driving around to city parks and appearing to be seeking a target in a darkened location. Some or most of the victims so far have been homeless.

As the Sacramento Bee reports, Brownlee's criminal record includes several traffic infractions, a 2009 DUI, and an unspecified felony in 2017 in San Joaquin County. Brownlee was also arrested and pleaded guilty after failing to stop at a border crossing in Arizona in 2019.

At the press conference, there was a moment of silence for the six victims, after which San Joaquin District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar announced that Brownlee would be arraigned on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., as the Chronicle reports.

Ballistics evidence has linked seven shootings, six of them fatal, to a single shooter, with the first known killing in April 2021 and the last one on September 27. McFadden says there was no connection between the victims except that it seemed that the suspect was targeting a "certain complexion."

The known victims of the killer are Juan Vasquez Serrano, 39, who was killed in Oakland on April 10, 2021; Paul Yaw, 35, who was killed in Stockton on July 8, 2o22; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who was killed August 11; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, who was shot on August 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who was killed September 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who was killed September 27. Homeless woman Natasha LaTour, 46, was the sole surviving victim, and she was shot in Stockton on April 16, 2021, six days after the Oakland killing.

Earlier this week, we learned that two unsolved killings in Chicago from 2018 were being investigated for possible links to these six murders, but authorities so far have said that no links have been established. While the Stockton and Oakland killings all occurred in late-night hours, the Chicago killings were in daylight, and the victims were both men out walking on the street in a suburban neighborhood.

Previously: Could the Stockton Serial Killer Be Chicago's 'Duck Walk Killer' Who Randomly Murdered Two Men In 2018?

Investigators are trying to determine if a suspect who shot two men, execution-style, four years ago in Chicago could be the same suspect responsible for six murders in the last year and a half in Stockton and Oakland.

The "Duck Walk Killer" caused terror in the Chicagoland area in early October 2018, after the shooting deaths of two men out walking in Rogers Park — a community about nine miles north of downtown Chicago, along Lake Michigan, that is home to Loyola University. As KPIX reports, the first victim was 73-year-old Douglass Watts, who was shot on the street while out walking his two dogs on September 30, 2018. The second victim, 24-year-old Eliyahu Moscowitz, was killed while walking along a bike path near the university, about 36 hours later.

The two killings were linked by ballistics evidence.

Chicago residents were shocked by the killings, which were followed by the release of surveillance video of a suspect wearing a ski mask over his head and face — a bit less common and more sinister in the pre-pandemic times. He appeared in daylight video to be a Black male around six fee tall, with a distinctive gait and slightly outward-turned feet — leading to the "duck walk" moniker.

Rumors spread around the Loyola campus and the neighborhood in the months following the unsolved shootings, and residents continued discussing where the killer might have gone. During the pandemic, a Facebook Group devoted to the shootings surmised that the killer might be quarantining while caring for an elderly parent, or he might be incarcerated for another crime, or he might have left the Chicagoland area.

CBS Sacramento broke the story of the possible connection between this killer and the man who has been terrorizing the homeless community, and the larger community, in Stockton for the last several months. The Stockton serial killer, as we've been calling him, killed five homeless men in the city between July and September of this year, the most recent just a few weeks ago. Police quickly determined that the same gun was used to kill a homeless man in Oakland in April 2019.

A Sacramento reporter got in contact with CBS Chicago Investigator Brad Edwards, who immediately saw similarities in the brief, much more obscured surveillance video that is some of the only evidence in the Stockton case.

"Over and over and over we heard 'pay attention to the gait, the gait...the walk' and it struck a chord," Edwards said, speaking to CBS Sacramento. Looking at the figures in both videos, Edwards says, "They're eerily similar in stature, clothing, and that gait. It was very close as far as what appeared to be the same height, 6 to 6'2", weight, the same slender clothing, hands in pockets."

As Edwards says, the Duck Walk Killer shootings stood out for their randomness — neither man was robbed, both were point-blank-range shootings on the street — even in a city where nearly 3,000 people were shot in 2018, and 561 murders took place that year.

"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," said Edwards, speaking over Zoom with CBS Sacramento on Thursday.

As of Friday morning, both Chicago police and Stockton police say they are working together, but they have not found any connection between the killings so far — and that may imply that the ballistics on the guns used don't match up, so all they have to go on is this "gait" stuff. The nature of the killings do appear different — all the Stockton shootings and the Oakland one, including one non-fatal shooting of a homeless woman, took place in late-night hours when few people were on the street, in areas with little surveillance. The Chicago shootings took place in daylight, and the victims were both walking on the street, while in the Oakland and Stockton shootings the victims were all unhoused, and at least we know the surviving female victim was inside her tent.

"As part of our investigation, we have reached out to numerous law enforcement agencies in our state and across the nation," Stockton Police Public Information Officer Joe Silva said Friday. "We did our due diligence reaching out to Chicago PD based off the videos we have seen of their suspect.  At this time though, we do not have anything linking the two investigations. At this time, it appears the two are not related."

The most recent killing took place on September 27, when a 54-year-old man was killed in Stockton.

On Thursday, Stockton police held several informational sessions with members of the local homeless community and service providers, and they say that they, "answered questions, addressed concerns, and distributed flyers containing personal safety tips."

Previously: Residents of Stockton — Especially the Homeless — Are on Edge Over Possible Serial Killer on the Loose

A potential serial killer who may be targeting the homeless in Stockton, and who also may have killed a homeless man in Oakland, has rattled nerves and set the unhoused population, especially, on edge.

It was not initially discussed by police earlier this week that a majority of the victims, if not all of them, of a potential serial killer in Stockton have been homeless. But multiple news outlets have now reported that at least four of the six known victims of this serial shooter were homeless, shot during overnight hours in areas with little surveillance camera coverage. Five of the victims were Latinx. And one woman who was shot in July 2021 and survived was also homeless — she was coming out of her tent at 3:20 a.m. when the shooting occurred. As the Chronicle reports, she has given the only description of the man who has yet to be given a serial killer's moniker — he was wearing a dark jacket and a COVID mask.

The shootings have been ongoing since early July, when 35-year-old Paul Yaw was killed on the north side of Stockton. But on Monday, authorities said they had connected two more shootings from a year earlier to the serial killer, apparently by ballistics evidence — the woman who survived, and Juan Miguel Vasquez Serrano, a 40-year-old Oakland man who was killed around 4 a.m. on April 10, 2021.

The Chronicle has a few extra details today about several of the victims, including Serrano, who is described by neighbors in the Seminary neighborhood of East Oakland as a car mechanic for hire who sometimes slept in the cars he was fixing. He was shot to death on the 5800 block of Harmon Avenue on what turned out to be an especially deadly day in Oakland, and details about the shooting were not previously publicized.

Another victim, possibly the killer's fourth, has been identified as Salvador Debudey Jr., who was a musician and graphic artist who had "fallen on hard times" and was camping by the Calaveras River when he was killed next to a Popeye's restaurant on August 11, 2022.

Was Serrano this killer's first victim? Are homeless people his primary targets? The homeless population in Stockton, which at last count was around 900, are especially nervous and feel especially vulnerable now if they aren't able to get into shelter.

"We’ve been sleeping in groups outside with rocks and sticks," says one homeless man in Stockton, Arturo Peña, speaking to the Chronicle. "We know we’ll likely not kill him, but hopefully we can slow him down if he attacks us."

Robert Lewis, a 65-year-old homeless man, tells the paper, "There’s a lot of craziness out here, and how can you tell [the killer] apart from the people screaming at poles and talking to themselves? If you’re killing people like that, you’re crazy too."

Lewis's girlfriend, 66-year-old Kim Jennings, tells the Chronicle that she's glad the two of them are currently sheltered at the Stockton Shelter for the Homeless, saying, "This place is a blessing."

The shelter is on the opposite end of town from where six of the total seven shootings have occurred. Police have not discussed any leads so far besides the grainy surveillance image of a person, seen from behind, released on Sunday.

Homeless people have been targeted by serial killers for many years — and for someone bent on random murder, unsheltered people make for fairly easy targets. A 30-year-old man was arrested in March in Washington, D.C., Gerald Brevard III, and charged with the murders of five homeless men in New York and D.C.

Late last year, a 25-year-old man in Miami was arrested on suspicion of two murders of homeless individuals.

San Joaquin County last dealt with serial killers when a burial ground was revealed in the rural town of Linden, just east of Stockton, by one half of the duo known as the Speed-Freak Killers, in 2012. Convicted killer Wesley Shermantine began revealing the locations of the victims of his and Loren Herzog's meth-fueled killing spree of the 1980s and 90s, leading authorities to a well on a property in Linden in 2012. Investigators proceeded to find around 300 bones there from at least 10 victims — and the Speed-Freak Killers are believed to have killed at least 15 people.

Previously: Oakland Shooting From April 2021 Being Linked to Stockton Serial Killer Investigation

Photo via San Joaquin Continuum of Care

Another murder, this one last year in the Bay Area, may be linked to a string of unsolved killings in Stockton from the last three months, as a new serial killer investigation is rattling nerves in the Central Valley.

On Monday we learned that five seemingly random shootings, all of which took place on darkened, late-night streets in Stockton since July, are looking like the work of a serial killer. Now two more shootings, one of them fatal, are being added to this shooter's list of alleged deeds.

In all the previously discussed shootings in Stockton, the most recent of which was last week, the victims were male, and four of the five were Hispanic males. Now, as the Stockton Police Department announced late Monday night, we can add another Hispanic male victim to the list, an unnamed 40-year-old man who was killed in Oakland on April 10, 2021 around 4:18 a.m.

The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau has identified the victim as Juan Vasquez Serrano of Oakland, and he was reportedly 39 years old.

April 10, 2021 was called, at the time, "the deadliest day of 2021" in the city of Oakland, because three homicides occurred that day. This unsolved shooting death was hardly mentioned in the news coverage, as it was overshadowed by a liquor store shooting that same day that cascaded into a deadly arson that killed a man and his baby daughter. After a pandemic-driven period of relative quiet on Oakland's streets, the city saw a rapid uptick in violence last year, and by April police were investigating a new homicide every three days.

A second shooting, in which a Black woman in Stockton was injured but survived, occurred just six days later, on April 16, 2021. That took place at 3:20 a.m. at Park and Union street in Stockton, and the woman was reportedly alone at the time.

"While detectives continue to follow up on this series, detectives can confirm the following two additional cases are linked," the posting from Stockton police says.

The linkage, which could be from ballistic or other evidence, means that this potential serial killer has been active now for at least a year and a half. This person also may or may not have taken a long pause between killings — pending more unsolved, late-night shootings that may be linked as well. Police have not disclosed the nature of the evidentiary link that they have found.

The next shooting investigators have publicly discussed occurred in early July 2022, when 35-year-old Paul Alexander Yaw was killed at 12:31 a.m. on July 8 on the 5600 block of Kermit Lane. That's a lapse of 15 months.

NBC News reports that at least two of the victims, including Yaw, were homeless.

Police on Monday released a grainy image of a person, from behind, who they say may be a witness or a suspect to one of the crimes.

"It definitely meets the definition of a serial killer," said Stockton Police Officer Joseph Silva, speaking to the Associated Press. “What makes this different is the shooter is just looking for an opportunity, and unfortunately our victims were alone in a dark area.”

So far none of the victims appear to have known each other or had any connection, and neither drugs nor gang activity are suspected in any of the cases.

Anyone with information on the case is being asked to call 209-937-8167, or you can also email your information to policetips@stocktonca.gov. Police and CrimeStoppers are offering a $95,000 total reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.

Previously: A Serial Killer May Have Recently Murdered Five Men In Stockton

Five deaths of men walking alone on roads in Stockton at night or in the pre-dawn hours in the last several months appear to be linked, and Stockton police now say they are on the hunt for a serial killer.

The first killing happened on just after midnight, on the morning of July 8. As ABC News reports, 35-year-old Paul Alexander Yaw was killed at 12:31 a.m. on the 5600 block of Kermit Lane in Stockton.

Yaw's family put out a statement to ABC News confirming his death, and saying, "He was a good boy who grew into a good man with a big heart. He will always live on in our hearts. He was always there for you if you needed him. He was a son, brother, father, grandson, nephew and cousin. I still can't believe he's not coming back. I hope this helps to catch the person(s) responsible."

Subsequent shootings followed in August and September, with the most recent occurring just last week. All of the other victims besides Yaw have been Hispanic males.

Sacramento affiliate KXTV reports that the City of Stockton is now offering a $75,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case, and CrimeStoppers is offering an additional $10,000 reward. They have also revealed a shadowy photograph of what appears to be a man from behind, whom police say is a person of interest in the case.

The other shootings occurred on August 11, when a 43-year-old man was fatally shot at 9:49 p.m. on the 4900 block of West Lane.; a 21-year-old man was fatally shot at 6:41 a.m. on August 30 on the 800 block of E. Hammer Lane; a 52-year-old man was fatally shot at 4:27 a.m. on September 21 on the 4400 block of Manchester Avenue.; and a 54-year-old man fatally shot at 1:53 a.m. on Sept. 27 on the 900 block of Porter Avenue.

The victim in the latter shooting has been identified by family to KXTV as Lorenzo Lopez. His brother, Jerry Lopez, tells the station, "He was just a person who was out here at the wrong place at the wrong time at the wrong circumstance. It’s hard to process that this has happened. I mean me and my brother have been like twins. We were a year a part so we were pretty close."

As recently as last week, after the shooting of Lopez, police were still treating the five shooting incidents as random and unrelated, but they now say they have physical evidence linking all four crimes. And all five shootings took place in the same five-mile radius of one another.

Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden wrote on Facebook about the case on Friday, saying that misinformation is being spread around town and "I know there are many sources out there that are talking about this investigation."

Police are encouraging people not to walk alone at night, and to stick to well-lit areas if you do.

Anyone with information on the case is being asked to call 209-937-8167, or you can also email your information to policetips@stocktonca.gov.

"If anyone, has information regarding these investigations, call us immediately," McFadden writes. "Please remember our victims have grieving family members who need resolution."