California police said they caught a serial killer As he looked for his next victim.
Wesley Brownlee, 43, was reportedly driving down the streets of Stockton in the early hours of Saturday, dressed in black and with a mask around his neck and a gun beside him. Police said.
“Our surveillance team chased this man while he was driving. We looked at his pattern and determined this morning, he was on a mission to kill,” Police Chief Stanley McFadden wrote on Facebook.
“We’re sure we prevented another murder,” he later added at a news conference.
Brownlee is believed to be responsible for the shootings of seven people since April 2021 leaving six of them and one injuryofficials said.
Police said the motive for the firing is unknown. None of the victims was assaulted or robbed.
Most of his targets were homeless, ambushed and shot dead between 8 July and 27 September.
The killing spree began on April 10, 2021, when 39-year-old Juan Vasquez Serrano was killed in Oakland. The next victim, police said, was 46-year-old Natasha Latur, who was shot six days later, but survived. He told the police that his assailant did not say anything before firing.
The bloodshed stalled for months, until July 8, when 35-year-old Paul Yew was killed in Stockton. Salvador Debude Jr., 43, who died August 11; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, who died August 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who died on 21 September; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who died on September 27.
“Based on tips coming from the department and Stockton Crime Stoppers, we were able to zero in on a potential suspect,” McFadden said.
McFadden said Brownlee was stopped when police looked around at her in parks and dark places, before stopping and moving on.
Additional reporting by Marjorie Hernandez
post with wires