A 43-year-old man arrested Saturday in reference to six randomly focused serial killings in Stockton and Oakland grew up within the Bay Space, the place he misplaced his brother to gun violence and was arrested for promoting crack cocaine simply blocks away from the place certainly one of his victims was gunned down, courtroom data present.
Wesley Brownlee, a Bay Space native and Stockton resident, was taken into custody early Saturday morning whereas driving round Stockton in what police referred to as a “hunt” for an eighth sufferer. He has not but been charged, however police have publicly linked him to seven shootings, together with 5 homicides this yr in Stockton, one in Oakland in 2021, and an April 2021 taking pictures in Stockton the place the sufferer survived.
Court docket data from all through Brownlee’s life paint an image of a troubled teen who was accused of sexual assault as a highschool freshman, and was arrested for promoting crack cocaine 3 times over 20 years in the identical Oakland neighborhood, the place his brother and an in depth household pal have been each killed in 1995. Police haven't disclosed what they imagine motivated Brownlee to allegedly begin in search of individuals to shoot and kill in his early 40s.
Brownlee was born in San Francisco however grew up in an house on Seminary Avenue in East Oakland — simply six blocks from the place the April 2021 Oakland sufferer was gunned down — till the late Nineteen Nineties, when his mom moved to Stockton. His dad and mom lived collectively on and off for 16 years, however cut up up when Brownlee was in his early teenagers, in response to courtroom data.
In October 1995, when Brownlee was 16, his older brother Dale Brownlee, 17, was shot and killed on the 5700 block of East sixteenth Avenue in what police referred to as a “drug-related” killing. An Oakland Tribune report from the time famous that Dale Brownlee’s shut pal, Kojo Upshaw, 18, was stabbed to loss of life on the identical location six months earlier. It's unclear if any arrests have been made in both case.
Court docket data say Wesley Brownlee turned depressed and “very distressed” over his brother’s loss of life and that his mom sought remedy for him. The data say he was recognized with a studying incapacity in elementary faculty and dropped out of highschool as a junior. When interviewed by a juvenile probation officer in his mid-teens, he talked about eager to attend school for pc science and earn a basketball scholarship with the hopes of in the future enjoying within the NBA.
In Could 1994, simply two weeks earlier than his fifteenth birthday, Brownlee was arrested together with two different boys on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old lady, in response to courtroom data. In interviews with a juvenile probation officer, Brownlee denied involvement within the sexual assault and blamed it on his two buddies. His mom stood by her son’s facet, telling authorities that the sufferer initially didn’t implicate Brownlee till her second interview with police.
A probation report famous that Brownlee “apparently suffers each innate psychological limitation and psychological stress over his brother’s 1995 taking pictures loss of life.”
“He appears both unable or unwilling to imagine significant duty for himself,” the report says. “He seems to have issue settling into any form of constructive exercise.”
Six months later, he was arrested on suspicion of promoting medicine. Juvenile courtroom positioned him on home arrest with a curfew and different circumstances, however famous that his mom suffered from a painful, continual medical situation and generally didn’t discover when Brownlee snuck out of the home.
In 1997, at age 18, Brownlee was arrested and charged with possessing 67 bindles of crack cocaine. He obtained a three-year probation time period however in 1998 his probation was revoked for an arrest of promoting cocaine to an undercover cop, and he was sentenced to 2 years in state jail. Court docket data say he served it in San Quentin.
Brownlee was arrested in Alameda County in 2014 for allegedly promoting narcotics on the 5800 block of East sixteenth Avenue, only one block from the place his brother was killed almost 20 years earlier, and inside a mile of the place Juan Vasquez Serrano was shot and killed in 2021. He pleaded no contest and obtained jail time and three years probation, courtroom data present.
Stockton and Oakland authorities have recognized the 2021-2022 murder victims as: Serrano, 40, killed April 10, 2021 in Oakland; Paul Yaw, 35, killed July 8, 2022 in Stockton; Salvador Debudey Jr., 43, killed Aug. 11, 2022 in Stockton; Jonathan Hernandez Rodriguez, 21, killed Aug. 30, 2022 in Stockton; Juan Cruz, 52, killed Sept. 21, 2022 in Stockton; and Lawrence Lopez Sr., 54, killed Sept. 27, 2022 in Stockton.
Brownlee can be accused of taking pictures and wounding a 46-year-old girl on April 16, 2021 in Stockton. She survived.
On 2 a.m. Saturday, Brownlee was arrested whereas driving by way of Stockton with a masks and gun in his possession, authorities stated at a weekend information convention.
“Our surveillance group adopted this particular person whereas he was driving. We watched his patterns and decided early this morning he was on a mission to kill,” Stockton police Chief Stanley McFadden stated. “He was out looking.”