Police have arrested the suspected Stockton serial killer and said officers apprehended him with a mask around his neck as he “was out looking to kill.”
Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said that Wesley Brownlee was taken into custody in the California city following community tips and “old-fashioned police work”.
The police chief said that a surveillance team followed the suspect while he was driving around and “determined early this morning that he was out looking to kill, he was hunting.”
Authorities say that the 43-year-old suspect is from Stockton and that he was stopped by officers at around 2am on Saturday in the Village Green Drive area of the city.
Police say he was found with a mask around his neck and armed with a gun.
“We are sure we stopped another killing,” Chief McFadden added.
The suspect will be arraigned Tuesday when authorities will announce charges against him.
Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln thanked the community for helping the department catch the suspect.
“Thank you for everything that you have done. Thank you for stepping up, thank you for exercising your voice, thank you for submitting the hundreds of tips that have come in on a daily basis,” he said.
Six men were shot and killed in darkness in or near the Californian port city of Stockton since April 2021. One victim was white, but the rest were Hispanic males.
A seventh victim – a homeless woman who survived an attack by what is believed to be the same perpetrator in April of last year.
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘I’m not leaving my house,’” Tashante McCoy, community activist and founder of the Owl Movement, previously told The Independent. “My mom texted today and she said, ‘I’m so glad that I don’t have to go to work at night anymore.’”
