Stockton police arrest suspect in serial killer case
Senior correspondent Laura Ingle reports the latest on the case during 'Fox News @ Night'
A suspected California serial killer, who Stockton police previously said was on a "mission to kill," was linked to a seventh murder and faces five additional charges.
Wesley Brownlee, 43, is now accused of killing seven men and wounding a homeless woman in a rash of random attacks in California going back to April 2021.
Brownlee's seventh victim was identified as Mervin Harmon in the amended criminal complaint that prosecutors filed in San Joaquin County Court on Tuesday.
Harmon was allegedly shot by Brownlee in Alameda County on April 16, 2021, according to the complaint. He's scheduled to return to court on Jan. 3.
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Stockton City Manager Harry Black announced that Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested while he was armed and on a "mission to kill" another victim. (Stockton Police)
Tuesday's court filing also includes three more murder charges and an attempted murder charge for the deaths of Paul Yaw, Salvador Debudey Jr. and Juan Alexander Vasquez, as well as the attack on the lone survivor, Natasha LaTour.
The murder charge for Harmon's killing is new, but Brownlee was suspected of the other attacks but never formally charged.
"The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office continues to collaborate with our local law enforcement agencies to ensure justice for these victims," District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said in a statement. "We would like to thank the community for their support and law enforcement for their diligent investigation and apprehension of the suspect."
Brownlee allegedly ambushed his victims in parks and on sidewalks under the cloak of night, with no publicly known motive.
Most of the shootings took place in Stockton, according to authorities.
The first happened in Oakland, California, on April 10, 2021. Police said they believe all the shootings were related, based on ballistic evidence and surveillance video.
The lone survivor, LaTour, told police that her attacker didn’t say anything.
"There were no words exchanged," she recalled in an interview with San Joaquin County’s independent local news outlet, 209 Times. "Didn't come any closer. Didn't say anything. Just started shooting. I saw, I saw flashes."
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LaTour, Serrano and Harmon were allegedly attacked by Brownlee in about a week span in April 2021 but the accused gunman went dormant until this summer, according to investigators.
Between July and September, five men were fatally shot, according to police. Each of them was alone in a "very dark" area at the time of ambush, police previously told Fox News Digital.
Stockton Police Department Chief Stanley McFadden announced that Wesley Brownlee, 43, was arrested while he was armed and on a "mission to kill" another victim. (Stockton Police Department)
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Tips poured in, and investigators soon zeroed in on Brownlee as a person of interest and watched him.
"Our surveillance team followed this person while he was driving," Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said after Brownlee's arrest in October. "We watched his patterns, and determined early [Oct. 15], he was on a mission to kill."
Fox News' Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
