Map shows where Stockton serial killer has attacked
The shooter has attacked six men and one woman. Their ages range from 21 to 54. The victims are white, Hispanic and Black. Some were unhoused, but most were not. The lone survivor said her assailant wore black clothes, a black face mask and said nothing as they shot her multiple times. The only image police have released is dark surveillance footage showing a figure in all black, striding purposefully past a building.
One of the ways FBI criminal profilers categorize serial murderers is through their victim selection. They tend to fall into two main groups: those who target specific individuals — like Ted Bundy’s fixation on dark-haired young women — and those who utilize a “hunting ground.” In a report on techniques for investigating serial killers written by the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit, hunting grounds are defined as “identify geographic areas offenders, become familiar with, and then later utilize to attack potential victims that enter into those locations.” Gary Hilton, for example, used national forests as his hunting ground, killing hikers he encountered on the trial.
The Stockton killer appears to be utilizing a relatively small geographic area as their hunting ground. Five of the killings have occurred within about a 3-mile radius, and every attack occurred after nightfall on dark, quiet streets.
A map showing the locations of six recent attacks in the city of Stockton that police have tied together via ballistic tests, pointing towards a possible serial killer in the area.
Illustration by SFGATE
Studies on geographic profiling have consistently found that serial killers tend to operate fairly close to some kind of home base, whether that’s their actual home or an often-frequented spot like their workplace. The most famous of these studies, the “circle theory,” took the two furthest crime scenes of each serial offender and used that to create a diameter. The study found that most offenders lived within the circle drawn from that diameter. A 1998 study found that 86% of the 126 American serial killers analyzed fit this pattern.
Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said at a press conference this week that the seven shootings were linked by ballistics, suggesting the same gun was used in each attack. The first shooting tied to the killer is the geographic anomaly. It occurred on April 10, 2021, on the 5700 block of Harmon Avenue in Oakland, more than 70 miles away from the other crime scenes. The circumstances of the shooting are in line with the other attacks, however. According to Oakland police, ShotSpotter detected gunfire on the dimly lit residential street around 4 in the morning. When officers arrived, they found a deceased 40-year-old male on the sidewalk.
Homicide Series Update: Today Chief McFadden released a video of the “Person of Interest” in regards to this series. If you have any info, please call 209-937-8167. There is a $125,000 reward for info that leads to an arrest. pic.twitter.com/QLhcobVFJZ
— Stockton Police Dept (@StocktonPolice) October 5, 2022
Six days later, the same gun was used in an attack on a 46-year-old woman living in a tent on the intersection of Park and Union in Stockton. That area, too, is dark and sparsely populated at nighttime, bordered by a large, open field and several industrial buildings. The killer’s known attacks are:
April 10, 2021, at 4:18 am
5700 Harmon Avenue, Oakland
Unidentified 40-year-old man (deceased)
April 16, 2021, at 3:20 am
Park and Union, Stockton
Unidentified 46-year-old woman (survived)
July 8 at 12:31 am
5600 Kermit Lane, Stockton
Paul Alexander Yaw, 35 (deceased)
Aug 11 at 9:49 pm
4900 West Lane
Salvador William Dubedy Jr., 43 (deceased)
Aug. 30 at 6:41 am
800 E.Hammer Lane
Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21 (deceased)
Sept 21 at 4:27 am
4400 Manchester Ave.
Juan Cruz, 52 (deceased)
Sept 27 at 1:53 am
900 Porter Ave.
Lorenzo Lopez, 54 (deceased)
Stockton Police spokesperson Joseph Silva stands next to an enlarged image of what authorities describe as a “person on interest” in the investigation into a suspected serial killer during a news conference in Stockton, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Ballistics tests have linked the fatal shootings of six men and the wounding of one woman in California all potentially at the hands of a serial killer in crimes going back more than a year, police said.
Rich Pedroncelli/AP
A dedicated tip line is available at (209) 937-8167, and tips can be emailed to [email protected]. Stockton police ask that people avoid dark, “isolated” areas and walk with others, when possible.