Stockton police say they have made an arrest in connection to six murders in California. On Saturday, Stockton police chief Stanley McFadden, city manager Harry Black and Mayor Kevin Lincoln announced in a joint press conference that they had arrested 43-year-old Wesley Brownlee at around 2 a.m. on Saturday morning.
"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. He was out hunting," McFadden said.
Beginning in April of last year, victims were attacked either late at night or early in the morning in dimly-lit areas while they were alone. A year after the first fatal shooting in Oakland, five more killings occurred in Stockton between July 8 and September 27. The killings occurred in a radius of just a few square miles, police said.
Serial killers are identified as such by the Federal Bureau of Investigation if they fall under one of two categories: they either kill based on their victims’ common characteristic(s), or---such is the case of the killer in Stockton---they stalk a specific location.
"What we seem to have in common is probably complexion -- it has been folks that are different races, but they have a similar complexion," McFadden said. "The location, the environments have been consistent: It's very dark locations, it's locations where there's not very many witnesses around."
"This is a person that lurks in the shadows," the chief added. "Our victims are being caught by surprise." Earlier this month, authorities said they believed the California serial killer was “on a mission.”
McFadden said Brownlee was wearing dark clothing, had a mask around his neck, and was armed with a firearm at the time of his arrest. The only survivor of the serial killer suspect said her attempted murderer had on black clothes and a black face mask and said nothing when he shot her multiple times.