STOCKTON — Renea Debudey’s son took two bullets to the side late one night in August here and died in a patch of dirt alongside a Popeye’s restaurant. It was dark, deserted.
She didn’t know it at the time, but Salvador Debudey Jr. was what police now believe to be the fourth victim of a gun-toting serial killer who since April 2021 has left five men dead in Stockton — plus a woman shot and wounded in her tent, and yet another man shot dead 70 miles away in Oakland.
Renea Debudey buried her 43-year-old son more than a month ago. And she’s still scared. Like much of this farmland Central Valley city of 320,000.
“Everybody’s afraid to go out anywhere, especially after dark because there’s someone killing people for no reason,” said Debudey, 62. “It’s terrifying. I mean, someone is just walking up to people and shooting them. Which one of us will be next?”
The shooting deaths here all happened in the north side of town between July 8 and Sept. 27, but detectives only connected them over the past week — and that has sent fear sweeping through the entire city.
Arturo Peña, 38, hangs out at the St. Mary’s Food Distribution Center in Stockton on Tuesday. Peña said that people have kept rocks and sticks next to them when sleeping outside since news of the serial killer broke.
Santiago Mejia, Staff / The ChronicleThe fear amped further when police announced Tuesday that ballistics have connected these slayings to the shooting death more than a year ago of 40-year-old Juan Miguel Vasquez Serrano in Oakland — plus the gunshot wounding of a yet-unnamed woman a few days later in Stockton as she came out of 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 Latino. Police say they have few clues other than ballistics and indistinct videos of a man with a loping gait at various scenes. The only witness account released has come from the lone 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 Stockton Police Department spokesman.
“It’s just senseless,” Raymond Debudey, 40, said at his home Tuesday, a few miles from where his brother was shot dead shortly before 10 pm on Aug. 11. “It just seems like a jungle out there. They need to figure this out. They need to catch this killer.”
Stockton serial killer: Residents afraid to venture out at night. Raymond Debudey of Stockton lost his brother to him Salvador Debudey Jr. in August. Police believe Salvador was murdered by a serial killer.
Santiago Mejia, Staff / The ChronicleSalvador Debudey Jr. was a talented musician and graphic artist, and after falling on hard times he was camping alongside the Calaveras River a few blocks from the spot where he died, his brother said. I have left four children behind.
“He was working on getting back on his feet, on doing his music, and he was a very nice person,” Raymond Debudey said. “I still can’t wrap my head around this.”
The last time a serial killer made a stir in Stockton was in 2012. That’s when police using new clues scoured the hills near this city for the remains of victims of the duo known as the Speed Freak Killers, who left dozens dead in a murder spree during the 1980s and ’90s in and around San Joaquin County (Stockton is the county seat) before being caught and sent to prison in 2001.
Now, as a new serial killer roams the streets, Latino and homeless people in particular feel like they have targets on their backs.
“We’re in a very diverse city, with about half being Latino, so it’s hard to know if these are hate-crime incidents or just chance,” said Ines Ruiz-Huston, vice president of the El Concilio California social service nonprofit in Stockton. “The good thing is that everyone is talking about it, and everyone is being extra careful.”
US Census figures show that the Latino population is the largest racial group in Stockton, at 44%.
“Whether you’re at the coffee shop or grocery store or at the office water cooler, these killings are the No. 1 conversation we’re having in the community,” Ruiz-Huston said. “Some family members are trying to be home well before dark. Everyone has to be extra aware on the streets.”
The last official one-night count taken by officials earlier this year had around 900 homeless people on Stockton’s streets on any given evening. On Tuesday, about 300 of them huddled at lunchtime in the cavernous St. Mary’s Dining Room, giving voice to the worry that’s spreading through their camps and shelters.
“It makes the hair stand up on the back of your head, but I’m not really scared,” Arturo Peña, 38, said in Spanish. “These streets make you tough-skinned. We’ve been sleeping in groups outside with rocks and sticks. We know we’ll likely not kill him, but hopefully we can slow him down if he attacks us.”
“The killer is in this area for sure, ” said 65-year-old Robert Lewis, who’s been sleeping in the next-door Stockton Shelter for the Homeless. “There’s a lot of craziness out here, and how can you tell him apart from the people screaming at poles and talking to themselves? If you’re killing people like that, you’re crazy too. ”
His girlfriend, 66-year-old Kim Jennings, is also in the shelter and said that’s the only thing that makes her feel safe right now.
“It’s really scary, but this place is a blessing, ” she said.
Teo Navarrete, senior director of the dining room, said the killing spree has sent a chill throughout the entire city, for both the housed and the unhoused.
“The shootings are happening in the north part of Stockton, but it’s still scary here too, ” he said. “Guy just walks up and shoots them? There are murders all the time in Stockton but not like this. It’s usually gang related or people who know each other. This one you have no way of predicting.”
The shelter and soup kitchen complex is located in the south part of town in an industrial spread of warehouses, and it’s the main homeless-aid center for Stockton. At night hundreds of homeless people bed down in the vacant lots and sidewalks spreading out for blocks.
“I’m glad the police are finally saying something about a serial killer, because we have people staying here who work and leave early in the morning for their jobs, ” said Elizabeth Skinner, operations manager for the shelter. “We need them to be extra careful.”
She said the staff feels that people can be safe at the shelter at night because the gates get locked at 9 pm “But if you’re staying out overnight, stay in groups, ” she said she tells people.
In addition to Debudey, the San Joaquin County Medical Examiner identified the Stockton slaying victims as: Paul Yaw, 35, killed July 8; Jonathan Rodriguez, 21, killed Aug. 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.
“There’s one thing I know about the city of Stockton, is that we are resilient,” Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln told reporters on Tuesday. “When we experience and we go through adversity, like the chief said, we come together. We find a way.”
Neighbors on the residential block where Yaw was shot to death — near a park he had reportedly been sleeping in — said yes, they feel like the city can come together on this crisis. But there’s a lot more work to be done beyond that. There have been 43 homicides so far this year in Stockton, and police say a quarter of them are tied to gangs or drugs.
“We’re used to gunshots at night, it’s just a fact around here,” Maya Alvarez, 24, said as she picnicked Tuesday with friends at the park, called Holiday Park. “They need to do something about that, because we’re too used to gang stuff.
“But a random crazy guy shooting people? That’s different. That’s a little more scary.”
Her picnicking pal Sierra Myers, 23, agreed to agree.
“I don’t usually lock my gate at night, but now I do,” she said. “It’s put people on edge. Nobody’s safe.”
Chronicle staff writers Sarah Ravani and Rachel Swan contributed to this report.
Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @KevinChron
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism