Stockton ‘serial killer’ update – Police now link two more shooting victims to creepy suspect taking toll to seven

TWO more shooting victims have been linked to a suspected serial killer in California, bringing the total to seven.

Cops revealed on Monday that a woman, 46, and a man, 40, were targeted in April 2021.

The female survived after being shot in Stockton while the man was killed in Oakland - around 70 miles away.

Neither victim has been identified by police as investigations continue.

A spree of shootings was reported between July 8 and September 27 this year.

The San Joaquin County medical examiner's office released the names of the most recent victims believed to be linked to the same killer - Paul Alexander Yaw, 35; Salvador William Dubedy Jr, 43; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21; Juan Cruz, 52, and Lorenzo Lopez, 54.

Each shooting happened in the dark when the victims were alone, Stockton police Chief Stanley McFadden said.

Cops have released a haunting image of a dark figure walking in the street who they believe could be tied to the crimes as they hunt for clues.

A total of 43 murders have taken place in Stockton, California this year, which is a 33 percent increase from last year.

Police told ABC News that all victims were ambushed, none were robbed, and none of the murders were drug or gang-related.

The suspect remains at large, but a criminologist has said the locations of the murders might lead to a swift capture.

"The reason I think he will be caught is because he's what's known as 'geographically stable," criminology professor at Birmingham City University David Wilson told Newsweek.

"In other words, he's not moving very far. He's not crossing state boundaries. He's not traveling great distances to kill his victims.

"He's concentrating his victims in the city of Stockton. And if you're geographically stable in that way, as opposed to being geographically transient, the chances of you being caught are that much higher."

Wilson, who isn't actively working on the case, believes investigators should take a hard look at the first killing as the killer may have left extra clues.

"That's because if this is the first in that sequence of murders, the killer is usually inexperienced and will therefore make mistakes," the professor said.

"And those mistakes often allow law enforcement to harvest forensic clues that are going to prove to be useful in terms of identifying a perpetrator."

INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED

Police have assembled a team of detectives, task force officers, camera room operators, and crime analysts to solve the crime.

While all the victims were identified as Hispanic males, investigators said they do not suspect the killings to be hate crimes.

"At this time, we do not know if it is one suspect or multiple suspects committing these homicides," Stockton police said.

Police Chief Stanley McFadden said that he felt the pattern was significant enough to warn the public in a recent press conference.

According to Newsweek, McFadden elaborated further on the chilling overlaps between the cases, saying: "We do see some similarity where it's really areas of darkness.

"It's really areas where the person is by themselves, maybe not even knowing it's coming, and that's kind of what [we're] looking into in some of the most recent ones.

"People are by themselves, they don't have that situational awareness that we would like for folks to have."

None of the victims were robbed, and all the crimes occurred when the victims were alone in areas that lacked security cameras.

'HAVEN'T RULED ANYTHING OUT'

But he also noted that they "haven't ruled anything out."

He also warned the public to avoid traveling alone in the dark and journeying through isolated places.

"I know that's put a lot of folks on edge, hearing that out there," McFadden said.

"And I'm just here to say that we have no evidence of that.

"We are seeing some patterns and similarities in some of our more recent homicides where we're taking a closer look at.

"We don't know if it's one person, or if it's five or six people. We just don't have that information right now," McFadden said.