On Monday, police officials disclosed an apparent murder-suicide in the city of San Mateo, California. According to authorities, a San Mateo employee killed his 42-year old co-worker at a residential house on the 1700 block of Pierce Street before he went home and took his life next.
Police officers responded to a 911 call at 7:20 a.m. on early Monday morning, when the incident began. As law enforcement authorities arrived, they declared the shot victim dead at the scene. Other care home employees served as witnesses to the crime and gave leads to the 49-year old victim’s perpetrator. According to multiple testimonies, the suspect is a 48-year old colleague of the dead victim. Both the victim and the suspect’s names remain undisclosed, but the possible motive of the felony is a love triangle relationship that involves the two.
“The motive appears to have been over a dating relationship they both shared with a woman,” Michael Haobsh, the San Mateo police spokesman, stated.
Minutes after the murder happened and with the suspect identified, authorities traced down his location at 1600 block of Marina Court near Lakeshore Park, a mile away from the crime scene. At 7:57 a.m., police officers arrived to set up perimeters and shift away innocent bystanders. The Crisis Negotiation Team and the North Central Regional SWAT Team tried to make negotiations with the perpetrator. According to the police, the suspect’s wife was with him inside their home during the whole process. They processed the talks through a phone call with the suspect, ensuring the safety of both parties involved, including the welfare of the criminal’s spouse. The whole procedure lasted took place all Monday morning, the talk lasting for four hours in total.
“His wife was inside with him “voluntarily,” authorities said.
Due to the previously mentioned information, the police tried their best to get mediations across without inducing harm to the suspect’s wife. After a four-hour negotiation talk, they made an effort to let him concede peacefully. However, at 12:12 p.m., the suspect turned the gun on himself while he was on a call with the police, ultimately putting an end to his life.
As officers heard the gunshots by the suspect’s end of the line, they dispatched a robot to enter the killer’s room. According to police reports, he was found dead on the second floor of his house with a self-inflicted gunshot lesion. Following the incident, they also found the suspect’s wife inside their home unharmed and evacuated her out for her safety.
San Mateo police revealed that the suspect went to the residential home at Pierce Street to shoot the 42-year old co-worker to his death. The officers did not have any additional information regarding the two involved men in the crime.
At around 1:30 p.m., authorities were still around the vicinity to do further investigations. The San Mateo police spent the entire Monday afternoon inspecting the area, searching through all the evidence at both crime scenes. They also gathered CCTV footage of both places and went through homicide guidelines.
The police first suspected a possible connection between the homicide and the October 30 shootings in San Mateo. However, after long hours of time and effort investigating the case, authorities then concluded that the homicide was an isolated incident from the October 30 San Mateo murders.
Police are still gathering evidence related both to the Monday homicide and the October 30 shootouts. If you have additional information that you know about one or both incidents, you can reach Detective Sgt. Lee Violet at (650) 522-7662 or lviolett@cityofsanmateo.org. For anonymous tips, people can send messages at http://tinyurl.com/SMPDTips or initiate a phone call at (650) 522-7676.
