Sandy MaloneDublin, CA – Police have released more details about the Alameda County sheriff’s deputy who turned himself in to police after shooting a married couple inside their Dublin home on Wednesday.
“This was not a random crime,” Alameda County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Ray Kelly told reporters, according to KCRA. “This is a very bizarre chain of events that unfolded.”
Dublin police responded to a home in the 100-block of Colebrook Lane at about 12:45 a.m. on Sept. 7 after someone in the house called 911 and reported an intruder had come into the house and shot two people.
Responding officers found 42-year-old Maria Tran and her husband, 57-year-old Benison Tran, dead inside the home, KCRA reported.
Four other relatives, including the couples’ children, were inside the home when the suspect identified by witnesses as Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy Devin Williams Jr. came in brandishing a weapon.
Police said Deputy Williams used his service weapon to kill the Trans, KCRA reported.
The deputy told police that he had thrown his gun out of his car window at some point as he fled after the shooting and investigators are still trying to find it.
Lt. Kelly said investigators were trying to “fine tune the connection between Deputy Williams and the Trans, KCRA reported.
Sources close to the investigation told KTVU that Deputy Williams had been having an affair with the woman that he killed.
None of the other family members who were inside the home at the time of the incident were injured, KCRA reported.
Police put out a picture of Deputy Williams and warned the public he was to be considered armed and dangerous.
BREAKING: @ACSOSheriffs Deputy Devin Williams Jr. wanted in shooting deaths of male & female victims on Colebrook Lane, per @DublinCAPolice, adding he lives in Stockton & may be driving this 2007 VW Jetta w/plate 6MEA916 or 2015 Hyundai 9BMB449 pic.twitter.com/SM7Gzy6yNv
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) September 7, 2022
The deputy, who had fled 160 miles south of the East Bay crime scene, contacted authorities about 12 hours later and said he wanted to turn himself in, according to KCRA.
The Dublin police chief spent about an hour talking Deputy Williams through a “mental health crisis” on the phone and then arranged his surrender to the California Highway Patrol (CHP).
The deputy was taken into custody without incident, KCRA reported.
UPDATE: Homicide Suspect Devin Williams Jr. has been safely taken into custody in the Coalinga, CA area. Thank you to all the allied agencies for their assistance. Thoughts and prayers go out to the victims' family and friends. pic.twitter.com/vPwcZ0pju6
— Dublin Police (@DublinCAPolice) September 7, 2022
“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,” Dublin Police Chief Garrett Holmes, who is also a commander in the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, told reporters.
Lt. Kelly said Deputy Williams had undergone some “significant events” that may have precipitated the killings, KCRA reported.
“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.
“This is a tragedy. We’re all in shock here,” the lieutenant added.
Deputy Williams joined the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) in September of 2021, KTVU reported.
Prior to joining ACSO, he was a police officer for the city of Stockton from Jan. 16, 2020 to Jan. 19, 2020.
A Stockton police spokesperson could not disclose the former officer’s reason for leaving that department but cited a “personnel matter,” KTVU reported.
Holly Matkin
