SAN DIEGO -- San Diego police are asking the public for help in identifying and locating a person of interest in recent attacks resulting in two homicides.
The string of murders began at sunrise Sunday, when witnesses saw a man run across Interstate 5 near Clairemont Drive carrying a gas can. Firefighters were called to a 20-by-20-foot fire burning under an off-ramp bridge, and found a recently-killed man there.
A second man was discovered with wounds of some sort, off Kurtz Street east of the Sports Arena, shortly before 5 a.m. Monday. That man had trauma to his upper torso and was taken to a hospital with life-threatening
injuries.
That attack was about two miles south of the first one.
The third attack was reported about 80 minutes later, at 6:10 a.m., about three miles to the west. In the 2500 block of Bacon Street, near Robb Field in Ocean Beach. A man was found dead with trauma to his upper torso,
according to San Diego Police.
All three men were possible transients who frequented the areas where they were attacked, according to witnesses.
Information was developed that identified a possible person of interest in these cases, SDPD Homicide Lt. Ray Valentin said. Photos of the suspect were available.
Witnesses to the first attack told firefighters and police they saw a white man in his 30s to 50s running across the freeway lanes, from the railroad tracks area toward Mission Bay, carrying a gas can. He was described as wearing a tan or brown jacket or sweatshirt, a baseball hat of an unknown color and carrying a backpack.
Detectives asked anyone with information related to these incidents to call the San Diego Police Department's Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2346 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
