(RepublicanInformer.com)- Police believe that the shooting deaths of six men in central California could be the work of a “bold and brazen” serial killer.
According to the Stockton Police Department, ballistic tests have linked seven shootings that occurred in Stockton and Oakland between April 2021 and September 2022 in which six men were killed and a seventh victim, a woman, was wounded.
Two weeks ago, officials announced that five men had been ambushed in the dark and shot in the head between July 8 and September 27. Then last Monday, police said two additional cases from last April had also been linked to those killings, leading them to believe that this is the work of a serial killer.
The first of the six killings occurred in Oakland on April 10, 2021, when a 40-year-old man was shot in the early hours of the morning.
The 46-year-old woman who was wounded was shot a week later on April 16, 2021, in Stockton.
None of the men murdered in Stockton was a victim of a robbery. The five men also do not appear to be connected, despite all of them being killed within a few miles of each other.
What is also unclear is whether these murders are the work of one person or if multiple people might are involved.
On Monday, the San Joaquin County Medical Examiner’s office identified the five Stockton victims as Paul Yaw, 35, who was killed on July 8, Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who was killed on August 11, Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, who was killed on August 30, Juan Cruz, 52, who was killed on September 21, and Lawrence Lopez, 54, who was killed on September 27.
Four of the victims were walking alone in the evening or early morning when they were murdered while a fifth was killed while sitting in a parked car.
Stockton is offering a $75,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s capture. Both the Stockton Crime Stoppers and a local construction company offered $10,000 each to the reward.
