STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — A serial killer may have ambushed five men separately in central California in recent months, shooting them individually in the dark, and police are baffled as to why the victims were targeted .
Stockton Police Officer Joseph Silva said Monday that none of the men had been robbed or beaten before they were killed — all within a few square miles — and none of them appeared to know each other. The shooting also appears to have nothing to do with gangs or drugs.
Stockton police announced Friday an $85,000 reward for information on killings dating back to July 8. Authorities also released a grainy still image of a “person of interest,” dressed in black and wearing a black hat, who appeared in videos of several crime scenes.
The latest killing occurred shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday, when a 54-year-old man was shot dead in a residential area north of the city center.
Cameras did not capture any shootings and no firearms were found.
“We don’t have any video of anyone with a gun or an actual crime,” Silva said in a phone interview Monday.
Still, the footage available, along with ballistic evidence, linked the five kills, he said. All five men were shot with handguns, but it is unclear whether the same gun was used in each crime.
“It definitely fits the definition of a serial killer,” Silva said. “The difference this time is that the shooter was just looking for an opportunity and unfortunately our victim was alone in a dark place.”
There may even be multiple people involved in the violence. “Honestly, we just don’t know,” he said. “This person or those who are out there doing it, they’re absolutely daring and brazen.”
About 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the state’s capital, Sacramento, a city of 320,000 residents was killed in the evening or early morning, police said, with four victims each walking alone and a fifth in a car. Killed in a parked car.
The victims ranged in age from 21 to 54; four were Hispanic and one was white.
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The story has been corrected to say Stockton police announced an $85,000 reward for information that led to an arrest in the killings on Friday rather than Sunday.