STOCKTON, Calif. –
(*3*) on Tuesday charged a Northern California man with fatally capturing three males whom police have stated have been amongst six victims slain by a serial killer over the previous yr and a half.
Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of killing six males and wounding a girl in a sequence of shootings courting again to April 2021. Police had been conducting surveillance on him Saturday as he drove by way of the streets of Stockton, armed with a handgun and probably “out looking” for one more sufferer.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed three counts of homicide, one rely of a felon in possession of a firearm and one rely of possession of ammunition. Brownlee, a truck driver who had not too long ago moved to Stockton from Oakland, was solely charged in three latest slayings in Stockton.
District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar stated she expects to file further expenses in two different murders in Stockton, in addition to an tried homicide. Another killing occurred final yr in Oakland, which is positioned in Alameda County.
“There are some people who find themselves simply just too harmful to share the streets with you and I,” Verber Salazar stated at a press convention after Brownlee’s arraignment.
Brownlee didn’t enter a plea Tuesday and was scheduled to return to courtroom on Nov. 14 for additional arraignment. The decide assigned him a public defender. The public defender’s workplace didn’t instantly return a message in search of remark.
Detectives are nonetheless in search of ideas from the general public as a result of Brownlee is perhaps linked to extra crimes, Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden stated.
“We’re going to remain tenacious, we do not know what number of instances there are,” McFadden stated.
The firearm present in Brownlee’s possession throughout his arrest is of an identical caliber to the one which was used within the violence. Authorities imagine the identical gun was used within the slayings of the three males and are testing it to find out whether or not it was used within the different shootings.
Verber Salazar wouldn’t say whether or not Brownlee knew any of the victims personally.
It was not instantly recognized if Brownlee has an lawyer who can touch upon his behalf. He is being held in jail with out bail.
Authorities beforehand described the suspect — now recognized as Brownlee — as a serial killer who was “on a mission” however didn’t seem to have a transparent motive in who he focused for his crimes. Investigators have stated ballistics exams and video proof linked the shootings.
The 5 males killed in Stockton this yr have been Paul Yaw, 35, who died July 8; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who died Aug. 11; Jonathan Rodriguez Hernandez, 21, who died Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who died Sept. 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who died Sept. 27. Juan Vasquez Serrano, 39, was killed in Oakland on April 10, 2021, and Natasha LaTour, 46, was shot in Stockton on April 16 that yr however survived.
The felony criticism filed Tuesday solely lists expenses for the killings of Rodriguez, Cruz and Lopez.
Brownlee grew up in Oakland and has a felony historical past that features visitors violations and convictions for drug crimes in Alameda County that goes again to an arrest when he was 15 years previous , in line with The East Bay Times. He was most not too long ago discharged from parole in 2006.