Stockton Serial Killer: Police Release Video of 'Person of Interest'

Police have released a surveillance video showing a "person of interest" who may be linked to a recent string of suspected serial killings in Stockton, California.

The Stockton Police Department showed the video during a Tuesday afternoon press conference on the killings. Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said that the seven victims of gunshots, including one victim who survived, were linked together by ballistic evidence and by multiple surveillance videos that appear to show the same person near different crime scenes.

McFadden asked members of the public for tips on the identity of the person, asking them to pay particular notice to the way the individual in the video walks and their "upright posture." He stressed that police had no direct evidence showing that the person in the video was responsible for the killings.

"When you all see the video I want you to pay close attention to the uneven stride that this person has," McFadden said. "This person is a person of interest... We have no evidence that connects this person as committing any of these crimes, but [they are] a person that we are interested in talking to."

"We also want you to notice just how upright this person's posture is," he continued. "You know, I like to think we all have a normal gait and walk about us when we walk around. But this person's posture is extremely upright and it's noticeable."

McFadden went on to say that the "very slow" process of analyzing ballistics had revealed links between all of the victims, including two April 2021 incidents involving a Hispanic man killed in Oakland and a Black woman who survived being shot in Stockton. The other five victims included four Hispanic men and one white man killed in Stockton between July and September of this year.

Little else concerning the possible identity of the person of interest was revealed during the press conference. The woman who survived last year described her attacker as a silent man between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall, who wore all dark clothing and a face mask, McFadden said.

"[The surviving victim] provided us a description of what she believed that person was at the time of the incident," said McFadden. "She 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. Let's just say there's no words mentioned at all."

A task force including multiple state and federal law enforcement agencies is currently investigating the killings. The Stockton Police Department tweeted shortly after the press conference that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had donated $25,000 to a reward fund for information leading to an arrest, bringing the total reward fund to $125,000.

Newsweek reached out to the Stockton Police Department for comment.