Weekend Deaths Add To Stockton's Growing Homicide Rate

STOCKTON (CBS13) - A store clerk was shot and killed soon after starting his new job late Saturday night, and another man was murdered, possibly for his recyclables, in the early hours of the day Sunday.

The senseless murders are homicides 64 and 65 for the city of Stockton.

Police don't believe the cases are related, but both crimes could have the same motive.

"He was just doing his job," customer Maria said.

The store clerk would lose his life doing his job at the Paisano Market on E. Main Street. Police found the clerk, identified to CBS13 as Omar, shot dead.

"He just started working here," said Maria. "He was a good person; he was a good friend."

While police search for a motive, residents say they heard the shooting was the result of a robbery.

"I just heard that it was a beer run," said Maria.

But the death on Stockton's streets wasn't over.

"As our homicide detectives were investigating the market homicide, we got a call of four people shot," said Officer Joe Silva.

A man in his 30s would die on the 2600 block of Acapulco Lane, while other victims would be rushed to a hospital.

"I know him and his wife; they have beautiful children," neighbor Shondell Taylor said.

While police aren't talking about a motive, but residents believe it's more of the same scenario.

"It looks like, perhaps, someone was trying to rob him," said Taylor.

The suspects possibly wanted the victim's aluminum cans.

"It's very senseless; I feel very unsafe," said Taylor. "I know everyone in this apartment complex is evacuating."

Police say their biggest challenge is that witnesses are not coming forward with information.

These two homicides are the second and third of the weekend, and add to Stockton's record-breaking year, which has surpassed the city's 2011 record of 56.