STOCKTON — Renea Debudey’s son took two bullets in the side late on an August night here and died in a patch of dirt next to a Popeye restaurant. It was dark, deserted.
She didn’t know it at the time, but Salvador Debudey Jr. was what police now consider the fourth victim of a armed serial killer which since April 2021 has left five people dead in Stockton – plus a woman who was shot and wounded in her tent, and another man shot 70 miles away in Oakland.
Renea Debudey buried her 43-year-old son over a month ago. And she’s still scared. Like much of this Central Valley farming town of 320,000 people.
“Everyone is afraid to go out anywhere, especially after dark because there is someone killing people for no reason,” Debudey, 62, said. “It’s terrifying. I mean, someone walks up to people and shoots them. Which one of us will be next?
The shooting deaths here all happened in the north of the city between July 8 and September 27, but detectives only connected them in the past week – and it has struck fear across the city .
Arturo Peña, 38, hangs out at St. Mary’s Food Distribution Center in Stockton on Tuesday. Peña said people have kept rocks and sticks next to them when sleeping outside since news of the serial killer broke.
Santiago Mejia, Personal / The ChronicleThe fear was further heightened when police announced on Tuesday that ballistics linked the killings to the shooting death more than a year ago of Juan Miguel Vasquez Serrano, 40, in Oakland – as well as the gunshot wound to an as yet unknown woman a few days later. in Stockton as she emerged from the tent she was living in.
The victims were shot at night or shortly before dawn and were alone.
Four were homeless and at least five were Latinos. Police say they have few clues other than ballistics and indistinct videos of a man with a jerky gait at various scenes. The only published testimony comes from the sole surviving victim, a homeless woman who said her attacker wore a dark jacket and a COVID mask.
“We don’t have much to go on,” said Officer Joe Silva, a spokesman for the Stockton Police Department.
“It’s just insane,” Raymond Debudey, 40, said at his home on Tuesday, a few miles from where his brother was shot shortly before 10 p.m. on August 11. “It looks like a jungle out there. They have to figure that out. They have to catch that killer.
Stockton serial killer: residents are afraid to go out at night. Raymond Debudey of Stockton lost his brother Salvador Debudey Jr. in August. The police believe that Salvador was murdered by a serial killer.
Santiago Mejia, Personal / The ChronicleSalvador Debudey Jr. was a talented musician and graphic designer, and after falling on hard times, he was camping along the Calaveras River a few blocks from where he died, his brother said. He left four children behind.
“He was working on getting back on his feet, making his music, and he was a very nice person,” Raymond Debudey said. “I still can’t figure that out.”
The last time a serial killer caused a stir in Stockton was in 2012. That’s when police scoured the hills near this town for new clues in search of remains of the victims of the duo known as the Speed Freak Killers, who claimed dozens of lives in a series of murders. in the 1980s and 1990s in and around San Joaquin County (Stockton is the county seat) before being arrested and sent to prison in 2001.
Now, with a new serial killer roaming the streets, Latinos and homeless people in particular feel like they have targets on their backs.
“We’re in a very diverse city, with about half of them being Latinos, so it’s hard to know if these are hate crime incidents or just happenstance,” Ines said. Ruiz-Huston, vice president of the nonprofit El Concilio California social service in Stockton. “The good thing is that everyone is talking about it and everyone is very careful.”
US Census figures show that the Latino population is Stockton’s largest racial group, at 44%.
“Whether you’re at the coffee shop, the grocery store, or the office water cooler, these killings are the No. 1 conversation we’re having in the community,” Ruiz-Huston said. “Some family members try to get home well before dark. Everyone must be very aware on the street.
The last official one-night count by authorities earlier this year had around 900 homeless people on the streets of Stockton each evening. About 300 of them packed lunchtime into the cavernous dining hall of St. Mary’s on Tuesday, expressing the concern that is spreading through their camps and shelters.
“It makes the hair on the back of my head stand on end, but I’m not really scared,” said Arturo Peña, 38, in Spanish. “These streets make your skin hard. We slept in groups outside with stones and sticks. We know we probably won’t kill him, but we hope we can slow him down if he attacks us.
“The killer is in that area for sure,” said Robert Lewis, 65, who was sleeping in the nearby Stockton Shelter for the homeless. “There’s a lot of madness here, and how can you tell it apart from people shouting at posts and talking to themselves? If you kill people like that, you’re crazy too. ”
His girlfriend, Kim Jennings, 66, is also at the shelter and said it was the only thing that made her feel safe at the moment.
“It’s really scary, but this place is a blessing,” she said.
Teo Navarrete, senior dining room manager, said the killings had chilled the whole town, both for those housed and those not housed.
“The shootings are happening in the northern part of Stockton, but it’s still scary here too,” he said. “The guy walks up and shoots them? There’s murders all the time in Stockton but not like this. It’s usually gang-related or people who know each other. This one, you don’t have no way to predict it.
The shelter and soup kitchen complex is located in the southern part of town in an industrial sprawl of warehouses, and it is Stockton’s main homeless help centre. At night, hundreds of homeless sleep in the vacant lots and sidewalks that stretch for blocks.
“I’m glad the police are finally saying something about a serial killer because we have people staying here working and leaving early in the morning for their jobs,” said Elizabeth Skinner, the shelter’s operations manager. . “We need them to be extremely careful.”
She said staff believe people can be safe at the shelter at night because the doors are locked at 9 p.m. “But if you’re staying out at night, stay in a group,” she told People.
In addition to Debudey, the San Joaquin County Medical Examiner identified Stockton’s murder victims as follows: Paul Yaw, 35, killed July 8; Jonathan Rodriguez, 21, killed August 30; Juan Cruz, 52, killed September 21; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, killed Sept. 27. All were on foot except Rodriguez, who was shot in his car.
“One thing I know about the town of Stockton is that we are resilient,” Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln told reporters on Tuesday. “When we live and go through adversity, as the leader said, we come together. We find a way.
Neighbors in the residential block where Yaw was shot — near a park he reportedly slept in — said yes, they feel like the city can come together in the face of this crisis. But there is still a lot of work to do beyond that. There have been 43 homicides so far this year in Stockton, and police say a quarter of them are gang or drug related.
“We are used to gunfire at night, it’s just a fact here,” said Maya Alvarez, 24, as she picnicked with friends at the park, called Holiday Park, on Tuesday. “They have to do something about it, because we’re too used to gang stuff.
“But a random lunatic who shoots people? It’s different. It’s a little scarier.
Her picnic buddy Sierra Myers, 23, nodded in agreement.
“I don’t usually lock my door at night, but now I do,” she said. “It makes people angry. No one is safe.”
Chronicle writers Sarah Ravani and Rachel Swan contributed to this report.
Kevin Fagan is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron