Stockton Turns To State For Help After Shootings

(AP) - Stockton police have called in the state Department of Justice after a series of weekend shootings left five people dead.

Officer Joe Silva says Stockton police resources were stretched thin by the three separate crime scenes, so the department requested help from DOJ forensic evidence technicians.

The technicians processed the last crime scene, where three people were shot and killed and a fourth wounded early Sunday morning in the parking lot of a shopping center.

Police have not identified the victims or released a motive for the attack.

It came just hours after a 28-year-old man was shot and killed in a family dispute. About ten minutes after that shooting, police received a report of another shooting that claimed the life of a 26-year-old gang member.

Silva tells The Record of Stockton none of the shootings appears related.