A 38-year-old man was arrested in connection with the May shooting of an unhoused man in Stockton.
Andres Lepe was arrested Thursday in North Stockton on suspicion of killing Christopher Butler, 46, on May 30. Lepe is set to appear in court on June 8, San Joaquin County jail logs showed Friday.
On the day Butler was killed, Stockton police officers responded at 6 p.m. to the railroad tracks in the 700 Block of East Swain Road on a report of a shooting.
Butler was found by officers suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital where he died from his injury, police said.
Stockton police said they are still investigating if Lepe is unhoused, the correlation between the two men and if there were any ongoing issues between them.
Officer Omer Edhah, a Stockton police spokesperson, said a dog in the area had been involved in the shooting and was injured. It was not clear how exactly the animal was injured, but the dog was taken to a veterinarian and expected to survive, he said.
A bright smile filled with light
Mary Marsili, who founded Showered with Love Mobile Showers, said Butler was one of the guests with the nonprofit.
Showered with Love Mobile Showers is a nonprofit organization that offers free hot showers and hygiene kits on a mobile bus.
Marsili said Butler was very beloved within the nonprofit. He had been a guest receiving showers since 2021.
“There wasn’t a Tuesday that he didn’t come, that he came over and gave us all hugs, made sure he hugged every one of us, told us he loved us, thanked us for everything,” Marsili said.
Butler was described by Marsili as having a smile that lit up everything. She said he was the kind of man who’d give anyone the shirt off his back.
The loss was devastating to everyone in the nonprofit, and many people joined for a memorial service hosted on Tuesday at the Stockton Alliance Church in memory of Butler, according to Marsili.
The church location is where Butler had come as a shower guest every Tuesday.
“It’s just a huge loss to Showered With Love, huge loss to the unhoused community on the north side, and I’m sure a huge loss to the Butler family,” Marsili said.
She said Butler also had two dogs – Charlie and Tuesday.
“I feel he (Butler) loved Tuesday’s so much, coming and being with us, that he even named his dog Tuesday,” Marsili said.
Charlie is the dog Edhah referred to as being injured during the shooting, according to Marsili. The dog is currently at the animal shelter in Stockton.
Jessica Velez, founder of Red Rabbit Advocacy Programs, said she met Butler at Showered with Love.
Red Rabbit Advocacy Programs is a nonprofit organization that supports people affected by homelessness and housing instability in San Joaquin County.
“I would just go over there and see who I could help with anything … and we just got to be friends and talked a lot,” Velez said.
She said Butler was just a very gentle man, a caretaker who was always looking out for people.
Velez said Butler loved to be outside and did not want to live in a house. She said his goal was to get his own piece of property and had dreams of building his own home.
“Grass for the carpet and vines for the walls,” she said.
Velez said Butler was well respected in the unhoused community and changed a lot of lives by being a kind person and made people feel loved even though they were out on the street.
“A lot of people were devastated over his loss,” Velez said. “It was just senseless really.”
Velez said she was very glad to see an arrest made in the case.
“It felt good because a lot of times I’ve had many people that I’ve lost over the past five years and even though I may know there’s something more to that person’s death it kind of just gets swept under the rug because of who they are and the lifestyle they live,” she said. “Seeing that they put forth that effort to actually find the guy, that meant a lot to me.”
Record reporter Victoria Franco covers public safety in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at vfranco@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Community remembers unhoused man killed in May shooting, arrest made
Reporting by Victoria Franco, The Stockton Record / The Record
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By Victoria Franco, The Stockton Record | USA TODAY Network
