Who are Stockton serial killer's victims? Cops link 2 more shootings to suspect as toll reaches 7
STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA: A suspected serial killer has taken the streets of Stockton by surprise after police reported five killings, all of them with the same pattern. Police reported on Friday, September 30, that the five killings took place on July 8, August 11, August 30, September 21, and September 27. Male victims, between ages 21 to 54, were a target as they were fatally shot. The Stockton Police has identified the victims and found eerie similarities and have warned the citizens of this Stockton serial killer. Now, the murder of a woman, 46, and a man, 40, have also been linked to the same serial killer.
The woman survived after being shot in Stockton, and the man was killed in Oakland which is almost 70 miles away from the usual spot of killings. The investigators revealed that the previous five victims were identified. Stockton Police Officer Joseph Silva explained that four victims were Hispanic males while one was a White man. One victim was shot while alone inside a vehicle, while the four others were alone outside at the time. The San Joaquin County medical examiner's office revealed the names of the most recent victims of these alleged serial killings - Paul Alexander Yaw, 35; Salvador William Dubedy Jr, 43; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21; Juan Cruz, 52, and Lorenzo Lopez, 54. Stockton police Chief Stanley McFadden explained that these unsolved homicides that occurred between July 8 to September 27 happened in the dark when the victims were alone. Four of the five victims were Hispanics between the ages of 21 and 54, as reported by ABC7.
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The officials released a grainy image of a person's silhouette whom the police believe could be the alleged suspect or a witness. As reported by MEAWW, Fadden said on Friday, September 30, "By definition, you could probably very well call this serial killings. It wasn’t a robbery. Items aren’t being stolen. They’re not talking about any gang activity in the area or anything. It’s just element of surprise. We do have grieving family members that are asking a lot of questions, and they want closure. We are just hoping that someone will do the right thing and report that information to our detectives." The city is offering a whopping $75,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, and Stockton Crime Stoppers put up an additional $10,000. Late Monday, Stockton police increased the reward to $95,000 after an anonymous donation.
According to the records shared by the police, on July 8, Paul Yaw, a 35-year-old White man, was killed around 12.31 am on the 5600 block of Kermit Lane. Two Hispanic men were killed in separate shootings in August. On August 11, Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, was gunned down on the 4900 block of West Lane around 9.49 pm, and on August 30, Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, was wounded around 6.40 am in the 800 block of East Hammer Lane. Juan Cruz, 52, was discovered shot and killed around 4.27 am on the 4400 block of Manchester Avenue on September 21. Six days later, Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, was shot and killed at about 1.53 am on September 27, Tuesday, in the area of the 900 block of Porter Avenue.
Criminology professor at Birmingham City University David Wilson told Newsweek that the arrest of this alleged serial killer is imminent. Wilson said, "The reason I think he will be caught is because he's what's known as geographically stable. In other words, he's not moving very far. He's not crossing state boundaries. He's not traveling great distances to kill his victims. He's concentrating his victims in the city of Stockton. And if you're geographically stable in that way, as opposed to being geographically transient, the chances of you being caught are that much higher. That's because if this is the first in that sequence of murders, the killer is usually inexperienced and will therefore make mistakes. And those mistakes often allow law enforcement to harvest forensic clues that are going to prove to be useful in terms of identifying a perpetrator."