Stockton Police Department has released a grainy still image of a ‘person of interest’ who appeared in CCTV videos from several of the homicide crime scenes
(Picture: AP)Police in California say a serial killer could be behind the fatal shootings of six men and the wounding of a woman in crimes going back more than a year.
Authorities last week announced that five men in Stockton had been murdered in recent months, ambushed and shot to death alone in the dark.
On Monday night 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.”
Police would not say whether all seven shootings had been linked to the same gun.
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 September 27 - and none appeared to have known each other, Mr 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 on April 16, 2021, around 3.20am, police said. The woman was also alone at the time.
The shooting death of a 40-year-old man in Oakland has also been connected to the violence in Stockton, police said. The man was shot to death around 4.15am. on April 10, 2021. It was not immediately clear whether the man was also unaccompanied when he was killed.
The city of Stockton, Stockton Crime Stoppers and a local construction company owner offered a total of $95,000 for information leading to an arrest in the killings.
Police released a grainy still image of a “person of interest,” dressed all in black and wearing a black cap, who appeared in videos from several of the homicide crime scenes in Stockton.
