Authorities say Stockton serial killer not linked to Chicago slayings

STOCKTON, Calif. - Authorities said there doesn't appear to be a connection between a Northern California serial killer and slayings in Chicago, as they initially thought.

Joe Silva, a spokesperson for the Stockton Police Department told KCRA on Thursday, that officers were working with the Chicago Police Department to see if two 2018 murders there were connected to the serial killings in Stockton and Oakland.

Authorities said the person of interest in the Northern California killings had a similar distinctive walk to the suspect in the Chicago murders.

But despite those similarities, Stockton police said on Friday they concluded there isn't a link.

The suspect in Northern California is responsible for five slayings in Stockton and a sixth murder in Oakland. The suspect also wounded a woman in another incident.

Earlier this month, Stockton police released a still image and video of a person of interest seen at several of the crime scenes.

Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden said, although the video doesn't show the man's face, it does show his unusual gait. McFadden said the man's posture is unusually upright, and that people should "pay attention to the uneven stride that this person has."

Authorities said ballistic tests and video evidence linked the crimes in Stockton and Oakland.

"We don’t know what the motive is. What we do believe is that it’s mission-oriented," McFadden said at a news conference on Oct. 4. "This person’s on a mission."

The first fatal shooting was in Oakland in April 2021. Then a woman was wounded in Stockton days later. More than a year passed, then the five killings in Stockton took place between July 8 and Sept. 27.

Although police would not say whether all seven shootings had been linked to the same gun, McFadden alluded to a single pistol during the news conference.