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| Photo Credit: AP. |
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When the phone rang inside a Northern California police station around midday Wednesday, the homicide suspect — an off-duty sheriff’s deputy accused in a shocking double-slaying — was on the line.
But the
detectives working the case were all out in the field, part of a desperate
12-hour manhunt to find Devin Williams Jr. So the police chief grabbed the
phone.
“The
secretary says ‘hey, Mr. Williams is calling and wants to speak to somebody
here,’ ” Lt. Ray Kelly, a spokesperson with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office,
told The Associated Press.
Williams was
wanted in connection with the fatal shootings of a husband and wife in their
Dublin, California, home around 12:45 a.m. Wednesday — less than two hours
after the rookie deputy had finished an overtime shift at the county jail.
Williams,
24, fled Northern California after he allegedly barged into the couple’s home
and shot them with his service weapon while their child and three other people
were inside. A manhunt immediately began after a witness — the couple’s
relative — called 911, with police describing him as armed and dangerous.
He’d made it
160 miles (258 kilometers) south of the East Bay crime scene to the Central
Valley — a remote, desolate area off Interstate 5 near the city of Coalinga
where temperatures had reached triple digits — before making a pivotal
decision.
“I think his call to us was an indicator that
he wanted help, that he had gotten himself way beyond his thinking, his
emotions, and that he needed help,” Kelly said. “I think that phone call was a
call for help.”
Williams’
call came into the police department’s business line just as Dublin Police Chief
Garrett Holmes and Kelly were about to go in front of the cameras for a news
conference.
Kelly, along
with a crisis negotiator who later arrived, scribbled and passed hand-written
notes to Holmes throughout the 45-minute conversation. They worked to find a
place for Williams, now in the middle of a mental health crisis, to surrender
peacefully without harming himself or any California Highway Patrol officers
there to take him into custody. At some point, he had tossed his gun out the
car window.
“We don’t
need any more people dying today,” Kelly said.
The slain
couple’s names have not yet been released. They were only identified as a
42-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man after officials pronounced them dead at
the scene.
Williams knew
the couple, but investigators are still working to “to fine-tune their
connection” and determine the motive, Kelly said. Detectives are looking into,
among other things, the possibility of a romantic relationship or an
extramarital affair.
“This was not
a random crime,” Kelly said. “This is a very bizarre chain of events that
unfolded.”
Kelly said
Williams went through “some significant events” in his life in the last few
months that led to the killings but did not specify what had happened.
“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.
The violence
left the law enforcement agencies stunned. Williams had been with the sheriff’s
office since September 2021 and was still on probation. He had been assigned to
the Oakland courthouse, and there were no concerns about his job performance.
“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,”
said Holmes, the Dublin chief who is also a commander in the sheriff’s office.
Williams,
who is from Stockton, briefly worked with the Stockton Police Department, where
he completed their police academy but was ultimately let go after he failed
their field training program, Kelly said.
Stockton
Police spokesperson Officer Joseph Silva said he could not discuss why Williams
left the department because it is a “personnel matter.” He confirmed Williams
worked for the Stockton Police Department from January 2020 to January 2021.
But
Wednesday was Williams’ one-year anniversary with the sheriff’s department.
“How did he
get there and where were the red flags and how did we not see them?” Kelly
said. “How did he get to this point of violence?”
Dazio
reported from Los Angeles.