Stockton California Serial Killings
Wesley Brownlee stands with public defender Allison Nobert during his arraignment in San Joaquin County Superior Court on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. Brownlee has been charged in four additional slayings this week, bringing his total to seven deaths in Northern California since April 2021, authorities said. (Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee via AP,File)/The Sacramento Bee via AP)

From the AP . . .

A man suspected in Northern California serial killings has been charged in four additional slayings this week, bringing the total to seven deaths since April 2021, authorities said.

The shootings terrorized the Central Valley city of Stockton earlier this year as police searched for a man clad in black who appeared to be “on a mission” as he hunted victims for ambush-style shootings. He was also tied violence in Alameda County.

Three of the four slayings listed in court documents Tuesday have already been disclosed by authorities — who earlier said they had linked suspect Wesley Brownlee to the killings of six men and the wounding of a woman — but charges had not been filed.

Tuesday’s fourth case, an April 2021 slaying that brings the total to seven killings, was previously unreported.

Brownlee was arrested in October when he “was out hunting” for another possible victim in Stockton, police said at the time. He is set to appear in court Jan. 3. His public defender, Allison Nobert, did not immediately return a request for comment.

In this undated surveillance image released by the Stockton Police Department, a grainy still image of a “person of interest,” dressed all in black and wearing a black cap, who appeared in videos from several of the homicide crime scenes in Stockton. 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 Monday. (Stockton Police Department via AP)

Brownlee was initially only charged in the deaths of three victims in Stockton: Jonathan Rodriguez Hernandez, 21, who died Aug. 30; Juan Cruz, 52, who died Sept. 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, who died Sept. 27.

The amended complaint, filed Tuesday, additionally charges Brownlee with the killings of Paul Yaw, 35, who died July 8, and Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, who died Aug. 11, in Stockton, as well as the Alameda County fatal shootings of Juan Vasquez Serrano, 39, on April 10, 2021, and Mervin Harmon on April 16, 2021.

He is also charged with attempted murder in the April 16, 2021, shooting of Natasha LaTour, 46.

Harmon had not previously been publicly linked to Brownlee’s spate of shootings. Additional details about Harmon’s death were not immediately available.

Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden speaks during a press conference at the Stockton Police Department headquarters in Stockton, Calif., on the arrest of suspect Wesley Brownlee in the Stockton serial killings on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. (Clifford Oto/The Record via AP)

A convicted drug offender, Brownlee was barred from owning a gun and he allegedly used an unregistered “ghost gun” to carry out at least some of the slayings, police said in October after his arrest.

In January 1999, Brownlee had been sentenced to two years in prison in Alameda County, which encompasses the city of Oakland, for possessing and selling a controlled substance, the California corrections department said. He was released on parole in August 1999 after serving seven months.

Brownlee was again convicted in Alameda County in December 2001 and sentenced to three years for the same crime. He was paroled in May 2003 and discharged three years later.

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28 COMMENTS

  1. fake news…we all know that with laws on the books against murder that serial killers can’t exist.

    /s

    • I guess we ALL wanna know exactly how many folks you gotta kill before “bail reform” kicks in!!

  2. by ghost do they mean defaced? because a pistol on the streets of oakland is cheaper than an 80% kit.

    • Probably. Few PDs, government entities or media outlets distinguish between actual unserialized guns built from kits and defaced guns that had their serial numbs obliterated. It’s in their interest to blur the line between them in order to make the use of “ghost guns” by criminals appear far more frequent than it actually is.

  3. The flippant use of the descriptor “ghost” for the firearm obscures what the serialization is or was. Was it a gun with the serial number filed off? There is a federal criminal law against this (even though I think that law is unconstitutional). Regardless; these crimes are not the fault of the gun – the suspect is listed as a prohibited person from lawfully owning/possessing a firearm in the US. Period. Guess he didn’t follow the law, did he? The same if the charges of murder against him since murder, last I checked, is against the law as well. Criminals intent on murder WILL find a way to kill their victims; gun, machete, knife, baseball bat, hammer…the list goes on. The media could certainly help contribute to the public good by demanding criminals be held accountable and responsible for the acts they commit as well as serve the time (without generous offers of parole). Instead, most of the media is barking all about the guns being the problems without any mention of the individuals who pulled the trigger. Seriously? Like living in a bizarro world.

    • It seems the media has quit reporting and instead now they create news of which much is fiction, a 7 letter word for lie. The truth is not convenient and the lies stir emotions.

    • According to the “news” three cops were attacked in Time Square NYC. by a male individual wielding a machete. The cops were reportedly armed with handguns and other accoutrement but he was still able to whack three of them, fracturing the skull of one with his kukri-shaped machete. Reportedly he had traveled from another state to Times Square where he was certain to find cops on New Year’s Eve.

    • Now we all know that guns without serial numbers will jump up, run out the door and shoot everyone it can because it knows it cannot be IDed by a serial number it doesn’t have.

      (sarcasm)

    • I agree. The anti-2A people will use anything to blame the 2A, especially in California. To me, this story is an example of why we need the 2A. Us law abiding citizens need our rights to defend ourselves from criminals and a tyrannical government!

  4. This article is obviously misconstrued. It clearly states the individual was a prohibited person.
    According to the LAW that means he can not process a deadly weapon.
    I do not believe this article is correct.
    Everyone knows laws keep criminals docile and if productive members of our society are given the opportunity to protect themselves and do so then they themselves become criminals. Possibly felonious, more then likely so.
    You- will- get- over- the rape or robbery, with time, however you will always be a felon and restricted of your rights . For the sake of your future and your dependents ,try and refrain from protecting you or your loved ones.
    I’ve found counting to ten sometimes helps before bashing their skulls to a jellied mush.
    It works if you work it.

    • Not entirely true, four-legged one. In CA a felon can petition the courts for a ruling of “rehabilitated”. It does require paying an attorney and paying filing fees and other goober mental “expenses,” but one can be declared rehabilitated which restores all rights and privileges of full citizenship, although you still have a record. I don’t think the federales recognize CA’s rehabilitation declaration, so according to them, you ae still a felon. I must admit that I am not an expert on the matter, just relating what I was told by a neighbor who claimed he was a rehabilitated felon. He was busted for possession of drugs for sale. He said, which is true of most “sellers of drugs” he only sold to support his habit. It wasn’t like he was a major distributor of drugs or a member of a drug cartel. He had been a chem major in college and was manufacturing meth for a few select customers and himself. Of course, even if drugs were legal, he would have been busted for operating a lab without a license and probably violating some zoning code restricting of manufacturing in a residential zone.

  5. To the Left scratching of a serial number creates a ghost gun.

    And of course the white Liberal/leftists don’t support arresting this black Criminal. Because they’re constantly complaining there are too many black people being locked up. And they say, “the best way to help black people”, is to make sure there are fewer of them being put in jail. And removing the father from the home a replacing him with a welfare check.

    But “the best way” to help black people is to make all drugs legal. That way “there will be no need for black drug dealers to have guns”. Also if we can raise the amount of money for a misdemeanor charge, up to $950. “That will also help black people.”

    • And then billions lost in tax revenue as businesses pack and leave.

      Pr0gs will say that’s racist and the business should claim off the insurance. Same Pr0gs also fail to understand how risk and premiums work.

    • these names and people are very common in the areas where these murders took place. I don;t see any reason to dream up a “hate crime”. That’s just an overused buzzword these days, in the same category as “ghost gun”. Even if his likely stolen murder weapon had had a readable seria number, they still had no idea what the gun was, where it was, or who was using it. It likely willeventuallly be traced to some prior theft, whether home-made or stolen then filed.
      Bottom line: this creep should NOT have been freely roaming about in public without a qualified custodian.
      Now, having murdered a number of innocent folk, he SHOULD, after a fair trial and verdict, be summarily executed. THAT would be the biblically mandated way to deal with such a one. And I always advocate th use of the classic firing squad for capital murders perpetrated with the use of a firearm. The perp needs a taste of what he dished out.
      Ten volunteers, using rifles, no hoodm face the shooters, fire upon command and continue until CEASE FIRE is given. After the culprit is dead.

      But he’ll likely be unleashed back to roam freely about in public after a piddly two years in the lockup to kill again.

      • tionico:
        “But he’ll likely be unleashed back to roam freely about in public after a piddly two years in the lockup to kill again.”
        I seriously doubt that. If not executed, he’s going away for life.

  7. When will these people in “charge” learn that you shouldn’t let these Amish Right wing white supremacist MAGA Trumper multiple felons run loose on the streets mixing with innocent civilians? At some point, one of the intended victims is going to ask them to please stop what they’re doing, maybe in a loud voice.

  11. Black serial killer, surprised we hear anything at all about it. Wait the vics were brown, so we get 5 minutes

  13. dacian, the DUNDERHEAD. Here is an example of a guy who did not bother with your Universal Background Checks.

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