Police link new attacks to alleged serial killer in California

The Stockton (California) authorities linked this Monday, based on ballistic tests, the death of six men, four of them Latinos, and the injuries suffered by another woman shot more than a year ago, to a single attacker, whom they consider a serial killer who assaults his victims when they are alone at night.

"He definitely meets the definition of a serial killer," said Joseph Silva, a police spokesman for Stockton, a city of 320,000 50 miles from the state capital, Sacramento.

Two new cases linked to serial killings in Stockton, California

Oct. 4, 202200:33

Police thus added two other attacks from 2021 (the death of a man in Oakland and the assault on a woman in Stockton) to the ongoing investigation into the shootings between July 8 and September 27, which caused five deaths in the last months.

[Wave of motorcycle thefts sets off alarms in New York]

"What makes this different is that the assailant is only looking for an opportunity, and unfortunately our victims were alone in a dark area" when they were attacked, said the police spokesman, who did not want to say if the attacks were made with the same weapon.

The assailant did not rob or beat any of the men he killed in Stockton in an area of ​​a few square miles, according to Silva, who said there is no indication the victims knew each other and the attacks do not appear to be gang-related or drugs.

These are the key testimonies in the trial against Mexican actor Pablo Lyle

Oct. 4, 202202:40

The two new crimes related to this alleged serial killer are the shooting death of a 40-year-old man in Oakland in the early hours of April 10, 2021;

and the shooting of a 46-year-old woman, who survived, two days later, and also at dawn.

The city of Stockton, the police department and the owner of a local construction company have offered a total of $95,000 for information leading to the arrest of a suspect.

Human stampede at soccer match leaves dozens dead in Indonesia

Oct. 3, 202200:37

Police released a blurry photo of a "person of interest," dressed in black and wearing a black cap, who appeared on surveillance video from several of the Stockton crime scenes.

[The trial of a serial killer accused of killing 22 elderly women begins in Dallas]

The San Joaquin County coroner's office on Monday identified the Stockton victims as Paul Yaw, 35, who died July 8;

Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, died on August 11;

Jonathan Hernández Rodríguez, 21, died on August 30;

Juan Cruz, 52, died on September 21, and Lawrence López Sr., 54, died on September 27.

López was shot just before 2 a.m. in a residential area north of the city center.

"I was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in the wrong circumstance," his brother, Jerry Lopez, told KXTV-TV. "It's hard to process that it happened," he said.

Unknown stabs paramedic calmly returning from lunch in New York

Oct. 3, 202203:36

The authorities do not rule out that several people are behind these murders.

“To be honest, we just don't know,” Silva said.

"This person or people who are doing this are definitely very bold and brazen," he added.