Police in California has arrested a man who is suspected to be behind a series of murders that claimed the lives of six people.
According to the Stockton Police Department, after receiving tips from the public, a police surveillance team located and began following 43-year-old Wesley Brownlee while he was driving around in the early morning hours of Saturday. Law enforcement believe the suspect was “out hunting” for new victims and “on a mission to kill.” Chilling. Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said in a statement on Facebook:
“Our surveillance team followed this person while he was driving. We watched his patterns and determined early this morning, he was on a mission to kill. … He was wearing dark clothing and had a mask around his neck. He was also armed with a firearm when he was taken into custody. We are sure we stopped another killing.”
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The police chief also noted in a press conference that Wesley was engaging in suspicious behavior at the time – including being “around parks, around dark places” and “stopping, looking around, moving again.” As a result, Stanley said the police stopped the suspect in the area of Village Green Drive and Winslow Avenue in the Central Valley city, where five of the killings took place, at around 2:00 a.m.
According to CNN, Wesley is allegedly responsible for the murders that took place between July 8 and September 27 of this year. He also allegedly shot a 40-year-old man to death in Oakland back in April 2021. Stanley previously shared on Facebook:
“These homicides occurred in the evening or early morning hours and our victims were alone.”
In addition to the Oakland shooting, the other slayings included a 35-year-old man on July 8, a 43-year-old man on August 11, a 21-year-old man on August 30, a 52-year-old man on September 21, and a 54-year-old man on September 27. The motives behind the killings are still unknown. Wesley was linked to a brutal attack on a 46-year-old woman named Natasha LaTour. In an interview with 209 Times, the woman said she had been living on the street when she saw someone wearing dark-colored pants, a dark hoodie, and a black face mask outside of her tent. The person then approached her with a gun and aimed at her:
“They already had the gun out, and they just started shooting. I just saw flashes. The person was prepared. They didn’t pull the gun out from anywhere. It was already out. When they dipped that corner, it was out, and it was pointed at me.”
She was shot “9 or 10 times” but managed to survive. Whoa. We cannot imagine how scary that must have been. Following the arrest, Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln expressed that everyone can “rest a little bit easier tonight,” adding:
“I want to make this very very clear, to the people of Stockton, to the United States and around the world. When the people of Stockton come together and we unite we can get things done. Stockton will be a place where people can live, raise a family and grow a business.”
While Wesley has been taken into custody, the investigation is still ongoing at this time — so we’ll have to see what happens next with this case.
[Image via Stockton Police Department]
