"I did what I hope anybody would do if you see somebody in trouble," he said. "I'm just a guy who did the right thing. John was a Vietnam vet – he's a hero. That's a real hero."
Hopkins intends to use the reward to pay bills and help his mother, who lost her job a few weeks ago. Prosecutors said Ocampo stalked each victim and stabbed them repeatedly with a knife sharp enough to cut through bone. Authorities found a knife sharpener, a book titled "The Most Notorious Crimes in American History," dark clothes and a medical marijuana prescription letter in Ocampo's bedroom at his Yorba Linda home, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. Ocampo's father, who is homeless and lives in a disabled big-rig truck, said his son was troubled after he returned from Iraq in 2008. Refugio Ocampo said his son showed him a picture of one of the slain men and warned him to be careful just days before his arrest. Prosecutors said Itzcoatl Ocampo targeted Berry after he appeared in a Los Angeles Times story about police warning the homeless about the serial killings. The first victim in the killing spree was James Patrick McGillivray, 53, who was stabbed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20. The body of Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28. Paulus Smit, 57, was stabbed to death outside a Yorba Linda library Dec. 30. Ocampo was being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 17. Prosecutors have not announced whether they will seek the death penalty in the case.
Donny Hopkins, 32, right, a forklift driver who helped chase down a suspect in a string of homeless killings after seeing one of the victims stabbed to death receives a $5,000 reward from the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs's president Tom Dominguez Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Prosecutors have charged 23-year-old Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine, and a Iraq war veteran with the murders of four homeless men in a nearly month-long spree that prompted police in Orange County to urge the homeless to seek shelter indoors.
