'Concern, a little anxiety': Stockton's Hispanic community on edge, calls for more Spanish updates
STOCKTON -- Stockton police and city officials announced over a week ago a series of killings were linked by ballistics and met the description of a serial killer, alongside a seconds-long security video of a person of interest, public information on the investigation is limited.
Seven shootings that date back to Oakland last year and as recent as September have been linked with ballistics. Six of the shootings were deadly, five in Stockton and one in Oakland, and as of now, there is only one known survivor, Natasha Latour. She shared her story publicly and said the person who is behind her attack shot her nearly a dozen times.
Five of the deaths were Hispanic men, with an average age of 42, according to Stockton Chief of Police Stanley McFadden last Wednesday. However, city officials say they cannot say definitively the person behind the killings is targeting one demographic.
The number of deaths within the Hispanic community has some leaders working to connect their communities with local law enforcement for information and safety tips, in both English and Spanish.
"Concern, a little anxiety, even though it's a large city, there's still concern," said Reverend Nelson Rabell-Gonzalez, with Iglesia Luterana Santa María Peregrina in Stockton.
He said the congregation at the independent Lutheran Church is around 100 people and most of them are farm workers. This means, he explained, they are up early and working late, when it is dark, and are a vulnerable population considering the string of murders happen in the early morning or late night hours.
He said Stockton police spoke to the congregation and offered safety tips, like staying in groups and avoiding unpopulated areas when it's dark. Rabell-Gonzalez acted as a translator so the congregation could hear the updates in a language, he said, they are more comfortable speaking Spanish.
One Latino community leader said there should be more communication between their community and city leaders and law enforcement.
"The only thing to make people trust in police is to have good communication," said Luis Magaña, a community advocate in Stockton.
He told CBS13 there need to be more updates in Spanish to include the city's Latino community more widely as investigation details are released.
According to the 2021 U.S. Census, Stockton's population is 43.5% Hispanic or Latino. Harry Black, Stockton City Manager, told CBS13 that the city's leadership team understands that Stockton is a "majority, minority" city. He said they are sensitive to the feelings of anxiety around the serial killings, especially to communities that may feel more at-risk.
Black said, at this time, they cannot definitively connect the killings with hate crimes or targeted demographics, but the Joint Task Force investigating the serial killings meets twice a day.
