Officials in Stockton, California, were prompted to suspect that a serial killer was on the loose after noticing a strange trend in crime data.
While speaking with Newsweek on Tuesday, Stockton City Manager Harry Black explained that officials normally track crimes in the city by looking at data trends and have an understanding of the types of crimes that usually happen in the area.
"Regularly, daily, we look at the data," Black told Newsweek. "And the data was saying, 'Something strange is going on, something is irregular,' which is outside of our typical historical pattern of crime and so doing a deeper dive into it, we discovered that we have a series of killings which appear to be linked to one person."
Black's comments come as police have identified a person of interest in a series of similar fatal shootings. Over the past weekend, the Stockton Police Department announced that the person of interest was tied to five fatal shootings, which had several similar qualities, such as the victims all being men and that they were all "ambushed."
A few days later, the Stockton Police Department said that it identified two additional victims that were tied to the person of interest. Both incidents occurred in April 2021; however, one of the victims—the only woman attacked in the series of crimes—survived the shooting.
During a news conference on Tuesday evening, Stockton city officials released a video of the person of interest and spoke about the surviving victim. Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said that the survivor "described that person, between 5-feet-10 and 6-foot. Wearing all dark clothing, wearing a dark COVID-style mask that was concealing his face and wearing a dark jacket as well."
McFadden also spoke about the person of interest's "upright posture" in the press conference but noted that police have no definitive evidence to tie the person of interest to the series of killings.
During his conversation with Newsweek, Black also spoke about the feelings among residents and community members as police continue to investigate the possible serial killer.
"I think crime in general generates anxiety and fear," Black said. "When something like this, which is abnormal and out of the norm of what the public is used to seeing, you're gonna have heightened anxiety and heightened fear."
Black continued, "And as a city government, it is our responsibility to communicate in a regular fashion and a transparent fashion, with the public...obviously we can't provide all the information to the public because we don't want to compromise the search and investigation."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
