The arrests have been made in a series of murders that took place in Stockton, California, authorities announced Saturday.
Acting on lead, police monitored and arrested Wesley Brownlee, 43, who was detained at around 2am Saturday in connection with six murders and one shooting injury, Stockton Police Department Chief Stanley McFadden said at a news conference.
“Our surveillance team followed this person while he was driving,” he said. “He’s on a mission to kill. He’s hunting.”
The chief said the suspect was wearing dark clothing, had a mask around his neck, and was armed.
“We believe we stopped another killing,” McFadden said.
Investigators allege the suspect used his vehicle in the attack but then walked away before opening fire. In press conferences and earlier statements, Stockton police indicated the shooter was essentially sneaking up on the victim.
“Pattern and its prey at some point have to walk,” McFadden said Saturday.
Six people died and one survived a spate of shootings that began in April 2021. The most recent was on September 27. Investigators used ballistic evidence to link the shooting.
Most of the victims were Latinos although authorities said they found no evidence the killings were based on race. Three victims were left homeless.
McFadden said at an Oct. 4 news conference that there was no evidence to support a hate motive. “We have no witnesses who say this person said anything like that, or even talked about it,” he said.
On Saturday, the chief did not talk about motives. Instead, he credited the Stockton resident for sending out a phone tip that helped his task force focus on the Stockton suspect’s residence and then shadow him while he was driving.
“We watched his residence until he moved around,” McFadden said. “We identified that he poses a threat.”
The chief said the suspect had a criminal history, details of which McFadden did not reveal, and he lived near one of the murders.
The arrests were made in the far north of the city, near a community center that houses a police post, and not far from a high school named after the late Central Valley labor leader Cesar Chavez.
The Stockton police SWAT team then searched the suspect’s residence, which was described as an apartment, McFadden said. Findings not disclosed.
Police later posted a photo of the 9mm gun on the agency’s Facebook page. It was the weapon McFadden said officers found in the suspect’s vehicle.
District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said a formal charge would be announced Tuesday. “You don’t come to our house and bring this kind of terror,” he said.
McFadden stressed that an investigation into the murder was ongoing, and police still wanted information from the public.
The victims have been identified as Paul Alexander Yaw, 35; Salvador Debudey, Jr., 43; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21; Juan Cruz, 52; Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54; Juan Vasquez Serrano, 39; and an unidentified 46-year-old black woman who survived.
Serrano is believed to be the first victim. He was shot dead just before 4:20 a.m. on April 10, 2021, in Oakland, police said. Another shooting took place a few days later, on April 16 and involved the unidentified woman. He told authorities he was in his tent and came out at around 3.20am, came towards a man who was making a fuss and was immediately shot.
The woman described the shooter as 5 feet 10 inches tall and wearing dark clothing and a dark mask, police said.
Yaw was killed on July 8 in a park in Stockton, his mother Greta Bogrow said. Bogrow, who lives in Texas, said he had been estranged from Yaw, who had been homeless for about five years.
The next shooting took place on August 11. According to police, Debudey was shot at around 9:49 p.m. in the parking lot. Officers tried to carry out rescue measures but he died at the scene, police said. About three weeks later, on August 30, Rodriguez was shot dead in his vehicle outside his apartment complex, the station reported.
The last two shootings occurred several days apart on September 21 when Cruz was killed, and on September 27 when Lopez was shot and killed just before 2 a.m. on the 900 block of Porter Avenue.
The killings have spooked the city of more than 322,000 people in the Central Valley, about 80 miles east of San Francisco.