According to the Stockton, Calif., police department, five unprovoked killings in the past few months appear to be the work of a single person.
Authorities are looking for a person of interest linked to the five murders, the first of which took place on July 8. All of the victims were male and all were alone at the time they were shot, police said.
The murders all took place at night or in the early hours of the morning.
Police have released only a few details about the series of killings and when they happened: a 35-year-old man was shot and killed at 12:31 a.m. on July 8; a 43-year-old man shot and killed at 9:49 p.m. on August 11; a 21-year-old man shot and killed at 6:41 a.m. on August 30; a 52-year-old man shot and killed at 4:27 a.m. on September 21; and a 54-year-old man who was shot and killed at 1:53 a.m. on September 27.
Stockton police told ABC News that all of the victims were ambushed, none were robbed and none were drug or gang related. Police also told ABC News they have physical evidence linking the five crime scenes.
None of the victims have been publicly identified by police, but the family of the most recent victim identified him as Lorenzo Lopez, according to Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV.
“He was just one person who was here in the wrong place at the wrong time under the wrong circumstances,” his brother Jerry Lopez told KXTV. “It’s hard to take in what happened. I mean, my brother and I were like twins. We had been apart for a year, so we were pretty close.”
The city of Stockton said it was offering a $75,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the investigation. Stockton Crime Stoppers is showing an additional $10,000 reward.
The day after Lopez’s murder, Stockton police said at a press conference that they did not know if the series of murders were connected.
“[We’re] we still look at it from a random vantage point, but we see some similarities,” Police Chief Stanley McFadden said Wednesday. “We have not received any evidence that leads us to believe that an individual is operating in the town of Stockton. killing people.”
But that changed two days later when the department linked the five murders and released an image of a person of interest.
Caroline Guthrie of ABC News contributed to this report.