A suspect has been arrested in Stockton, California, in connection with a series of fatal shootings, authorities announced Saturday.
Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested at 2 a.m. Saturday on suspicion of homicide in connection with six fatal shootings in Oakland and Stockton, which began last year and continued through last month, Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said at a news conference. Five of the killings occurred in Stockton, all this year.
Brownlee was "out hunting" at the time of his arrest, police said, but they did not say whether he was armed.
Police first notified the public of the killings late last month, saying that the five Stockton shootings were "connected."
A week later, police announced that additional shootings in 2021, including a fatal one in Oakland, were also linked. A woman in her 40s was shot multiple times in Stockton last year but survived.
"We do believe we could have a potential serial killer," McFadden told reporters at a news conference earlier this month.
The Stockton victims were identified as:
—35-year-old Paul Alexander Yaw, killed July 8.
—43-year-old Salvador Debudey Jr., killed Aug. 11.
—21-year-old Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, killed Aug. 30.
—52-year-old Juan Cruz, killed Sept. 21.
—54-year-old Lawrence Lopez Sr., killed Sept. 27.
Juan Miguel Vasquez Serrano, 39, was killed in Oakland in 2021.
