Suspected Serial Killer Awaiting Arraignment
An Iraq war veteran suspected in the stabbing deaths of four homeless men since Dec. 20 was locked up in Orange County today.
Itzcoatl Ocampo, 23, of Yorba Linda, was chased away from a Friday night attack behind an Anaheim Carl’s Jr. at 3110 E. La Palma Ave. and, with help from witnesses, caught about a quarter-mile away in next-door Yorba Linda.
“We are extremely confident that we have the man who is responsible for all four murders of homeless men in Orange County,” Anaheim police Chief John Welter said Saturday.
Ocampo, a 2006 graduate of Esparanza High School. High school friend Brian Doyle told the Los Angeles Times Ocampo had been kicked out the military, but Anaheim police declined to comment on his military service, and the A Marine Corps spokesman did not return calls to The Times, seeking his service records. He is believed to have been a Marine.
Anaheim police Deputy Chief Craig Hunter said Ocampo fit the description of the killer wanted in three other stabbing deaths — in Anaheim, Placentia and Yorba Linda.
John Berry, 64 or 65, was the man killed Friday night. The white-bearded man told people he was a veteran of the war in Vietnam. People who saw him in front of the restaurant and a nearby CVS pharmacy told broadcast outlets he was a nice guy, not an aggressive beggar.
“I saw him at CVS about a week ago and I started crying when he said he wanted to leave the area and I hugged him,” a woman told NBC4. “But then I saw him and I was so happy he was still here, but I’ve been busy and I didn’t have time the last couple of days to say, `Hi.”‘
Apparently, more than two dozen witness saw Ocampo running from the scene of Friday’s killing.
Berry, who slept along the bed of the Santa Ana River, reportedly told people someone had been watching him recently. Police said they warned him to move on recently.
Ocampo’s first name is Nahautl for obsidian serpent, the name of the fourth Aztec emperor, who reigned from 1428-1440. An uncle, Ifrain Gonzalez, told The Times that Ocampo came home from the war in 2010 “sick,” meaning mentally ill. He had been living with two siblings in home that Anaheim police searched after his arrest.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported, based on public records, that at least 121 Iraq or Afghanistan war veterans had killed someone or been charged with a homicide after returning home between 2001 and 2007. About three-quarters were still in the military when the crimes or alleged crimes occurred.
Police would not talk about a motive. Ocampo was denied bail and held in an Anaheim jail cell, pending arraignment, which could come as soon as Monday.
The first homeless man stabbed to death was 53-year-old James McGillivray, attacked as he slept outside a Placentia shopping center. Eight days later, the body of Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was discovered on Anaheim’s Santa Ana River Trail. On Dec. 30, 57-year-old Paulus Cornelius Smit was found dead behind the Yorba Linda library.
Surveillance video taken prior to McGillivray’s slaying in Placentia showed a male wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt. Investigators also were searching for a white, four-door 2000 to 2003 Toyota Corolla shown on the video. FBI agents have been working with a task force investigating the killings made up of the Anaheim, Placentia and Brea police departments and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
