SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, Calif. – A Northern California man accused of being a serial killer has now been linked to a seventh murder and faces five additional charges. When Stockton police arrested Wesley Brownlee in October they said he was armed and on a “mission to kill” another victim, Law Officer reported after he was taken into custody.
Brownlee, 43, is accused of killing seven men and wounding a homeless woman in a rash of random homicidal attacks going back to April 2021. The seventh victim was identified as Mervin Harmon in the amended criminal complaint that prosecutors filed in San Joaquin County Court on Tuesday, Fox News reported.
According to law enforcement authorities, Harmon was shot by Brownlee in Alameda County on April 16, 2021, the complaint reads. He’s scheduled to make a court appearance on Jan. 3.
The amended criminal complaint filed on Tuesday includes three more murder charges and an attempted murder charge for the deaths of Paul Yaw, Salvador Debudey Jr. and Juan Alexander Vasquez, as well as the attack on the lone survivor, Natasha LaTour.
The murder charge for Harmon’s killing is new, yet Brownlee was suspected of the other homicides and attack on LaTour, but never formally charged until now.
“The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office continues to collaborate with our local law enforcement agencies to ensure justice for these victims,” District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar said in a statement. “We would like to thank the community for their support and law enforcement for their diligent investigation and apprehension of the suspect.”
Most of the killings occurred in Stockton as Brownlee reportedly ambushed his victims in parks and on sidewalks under the cover of darkness. Authorities have not disclosed a motive for the serial murders.
The first homicide connected to Brownlee occurred in Oakland, California, on April 10, 2021. Investigators have connected the serial slayings based upon related evidence, including ballistics and surveillance video, Fox reported.
LaTour, the only known person to survive the attacks, told police the man didn’t say anything prior to shooting.
“There were no words exchanged,” she recalled in an interview with San Joaquin County’s independent local news outlet, 209 Times. “Didn’t come any closer. Didn’t say anything. Just started shooting. I saw, I saw flashes.”
