A California sheriff’s deputy was arrested after allegedly using his service weapon to kill a married couple in their home early Wednesday morning, authorities said.
Devin Williams Jr., 24, was taken into custody less than 12 hours after the double-murder of a 58-year-old man and his 42-year-old wife, whose relationship to Williams has so far gone unexplained.
Williams, a member of the Alameda County Sheriff Department, was off-duty at the time of the shooting in Dublin around 1 a.m., but allegedly used his service weapon to carry out the murders, according to police.
“He knew them — this was not a random crime,” Alameda County Sheriff Lt. Ray Kelly told the Mercury News. “This was a very bizarre chain of events that unfolded.”
The newspaper reported a law enforcement source said the unidentified couple were killed “execution style.”
Williams was arrested after he called and spoke to Dublin Police Chief Garrett Holmes, who believed the suspect was facing a mental health crisis during the 45-minute phone call.
California Highway Patrol officers picked him up about 160 miles away from the crime scene in rural Central Valley.
“It’s a great loss for our community and it’s even more disheartening to find out that it was one of our own that was the trigger-person behind this tragic incident,” Holmes told the newspaper.
Investigators said a caller told police dispatchers an intruder had entered the Northern California home with a gun, police said. The couple’s adolescent son was home, as well as a visiting male relative, at the time of the shooting.
Police searched for the murder weapon after Williams allegedly tossed it out of his car window as he fled, authorities said.
Wednesday was the one-year anniversary Williams was with the department. He was assigned to the Oakland Courthouse and there were no issues raised about his job performance during his short tenure.
But Kelly, of the Alameda sheriff’s office, hinted at events in his personal life the last few months that might’ve led to the violent outburst.
“A lot of those events went undiscovered and undisclosed and we’re going to be looking into that. There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered,” he said.
