Officials said that a sheriff’s deputy was arrested Wednesday after authorities said he fatally shot a married couple, sparking a manhunt across suburban Northern California and a nearly hour-long phone call that ended with his surrender.
At the time of the shooting, the deputy was not on duty.
According to Kelly, Williams, who had been working in the sheriff’s office’s courthouse division for a year, had not yet been booked when authorities announced his surrender.
Devin Williams Jr., Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy
“Our agency is stunned,” Kelly said. “This is not something with which we deal. This is not what we stand for. We had no idea something like this could happen.”
Kelly said that “some significant things” had happened in the deputy’s life in recent months, which appeared to have triggered an “emotional crisis.”
“Many of those events went undiscovered and unreported,” Kelly explained.
Kelly stated that there was “connectivity” between Williams and the unidentified couple, but he did not provide further details.
According to Kelly, Williams worked a courthouse shift as well as an overtime shift at the county jail until 11 p.m. on Tuesday. He said it was unclear when or how Williams allegedly entered the Dublin home.
According to Kelly, six people were inside the house when gunfire was reported to authorities around 12:45 a.m. Kelly said one of them was an out-of-town relative who became a pivotal eyewitness to the shooting.
The couple was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a news release from the Dublin Police Department. Nobody else was hurt.
Kelly claims Williams fled the scene in a Volkswagen. Highway patrol officers apprehended him about 160 miles away, near the city of Coalinga, just minutes before authorities announced his surrender at an 11:30 a.m. news conference, according to Kelly.
According to Kelly, Williams surrendered after a 45-minute phone conversation with Dublin Police Chief Garrett Holmes, who used crisis intervention techniques to resolve the incident peacefully.
Williams previously worked for the Stockton Police Department in California’s Central Valley before joining the sheriff’s office. Joe Silva, a department spokesman, stated that he was hired for one year, from January 16, 2020, to January 19, 2021.
Silva declined to comment on Williams’ “separation” from the department, citing a personnel issue.
Kelly stated that the sheriff’s office conducted an “immaculate” background check before hiring Williams.
Kelly said that in the year since Williams was hired, no disciplinary or other issues had been reported and that he’d done a good job, “excellent work. “He was a truly remarkable young man, “Kelly stated. “How we arrived here today will be part of our investigation and something we’ll look into as a law enforcement profession.”
It was unclear whether Williams had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
