Inside the hunt for a serial killer stalking Stockton: ‘This person’s on a mission’
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San Francisco police investigate a shooting victim in the Stockton area Thursday, May 21, 2013, in Stockton, Calif., as two suspects remain at large. Authorities have not been able to find or arrest suspect Jose Salas, who allegedly pulled the trigger. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
SAN FRANCISCO – A manhunt for a serial killer may be over, but the hunt for the man who may have pulled the trigger to kill five people in Stockton this week after shooting his estranged wife and five of her friends has not ended.
The five victims were killed last week in a house in the city’s South Stockton neighborhood near a busy intersection. The gunman, Jose Salas, was on the run after the killings.
He surrendered Monday in connection with the killings, and authorities said Tuesday night he was on the run again. Police described him as an African-American man who appeared to be in his teens or early 20s. He was wearing black clothing and was carrying a handgun with a laser sight.
San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr said at a news conference Tuesday night that officers believed Salas was responsible for the murders of his estranged wife, Cynthia, and her three friends. They also learned he had killed and injured a man and woman in Stockton last week.
Suhr said after officers spoke Monday with a member of Salas’s family, he appeared to have been turned in. They believed he had fled the area but had given them the location of the victims’ house.
They believed he was in a “safe house” in the nearby Bay Area suburb of San Ramon, where he had spent the past year.
But early Tuesday morning, San Francisco police got a call from San Ramon and began searching for Salas near his home. They found him early Tuesday morning with a shoulder bag, a handgun and the laser sight. At 11:15 a.m., officers took him into custody, after a four-hour standoff that ended around 2:30 p.m.
The Associated Press learned Wednesday afternoon that Salas had left another address in San Ramon but was not there.
