Suspect In CA Serial Killings Arrested While 'Out Hunting': Police

STOCKTON, CA — Police in Stockton arrested a man suspected of being the serial killer who killed six men and wounded a woman in a Northern California crime spree.

According to Stockton Police Department Chief Stanley McFadden, Wesley Brownlee, 43, "was out hunting" for his next victim when police stopped in his car at about 2 a.m. Saturday. When police stopped him, the Stockton resident was dressed in black, had a mask around his neck, and a gun on him, police said.

“We are sure we stopped another killing," added McFadden.

Investigators has received tips about Brownlee and had been watching as he drove around Stockton Saturday morning.

According to police, the deserted streets of Stockton in the early morning were his preferred hunting ground. Stockton is where five of the shootings occurred.

McFadden added that Brownlee was detained after engaging in what appeared to be threatening behavior, including going to parks and dark places, stopping and looking around before driving on.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Brownlee had an attorney to speak on his behalf. He was expected to be arraigned Tuesday on murder charges.

A police photo showed the black-and-gray weapon allegedly carried by the suspect. It appeared to be a semi-automatic handgun containing some nonmetallic materials.

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Police had been searching for a man clad in black who was caught on video at several of the crime scenes in Stockton, where five men were ambushed and shot to death between July 8 and Sept. 27. Four were walking, and one was in a parked car.

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Police said four of the Stockton homicide victims were ambushed walking alone and a fifth was in a parked car when they were killed in the evening or early morning in the city of 320,000 residents, located about 50 miles south of the state capital, Sacramento.

Police believe the same person was responsible for killing a man 70 miles away in Oakland in April 2021 and wounding a homeless woman in Stockton a week later.

Investigators have said ballistics tests and video evidence linked the crimes.

At the press conference, a moment of silence was held for the victims.

Police said Brownlee has a criminal history and is believed to have also lived in several cities near Stockton, but they did not give further details.

Authorities said they received hundreds of tips after announcing the manhunt, and one of them led investigators to find and watch the place where Brownlee was living.

“Based on tips coming into the department and Stockton Crime Stoppers, we were able to zero in on a possible suspect,” McFadden said. “Our surveillance team followed this person while he was driving. We watched his patterns and determined early this morning, he was on a mission to kill.”

Investigators were still trying to identify a motive for the attacks. Police said some victims were homeless, but not all. None were beaten or robbed, and the woman who survived said her attacker didn’t say anything.

It's unusual for serial killers to target men.

"Men are rarely the victims, unless they are vulnerable in some way (such as the homeless) or part of a marginalized group (gay men or drug users, for example). So this is somewhat unusual," Jane Monckton-Smith, Ph.D., professor of public protection at the University of Gloucestershire in the U.K., told Newsweek.

The police chief thanked various local, state and federal agencies that took part in the investigation, including the FBI, U.S. Marshals and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Local investigators had also worked with police in Chicago to determine whether the killings might be linked to two 2018 murders in that city's Rogers Park neighborhood. Authorities said videos of suspects showed a man in black with a distinctive walk.

However, Chicago police said Friday that there didn't appear to be any link.

The Associated Press and Patch Staffer Kat Schuster contributed to this report.