Point Reyes Light - November 18, 2004
Frenzied brother-in-law kills Forest Knolls man
By Jacob Resneck
A Forest Knolls man was shot and killed by his brother-in-law last week in a tragic incident that left both men dead. In the early hours of Thursday, Nov. 11, Rodney Williams, 48, a lifelong Marin County resident and father of four, drove to West Sonoma County to check on the welfare of Kenneth Duncan, 62, his wife’s brother who had a history of mental illness and was reportedly sounding "psychotic" on the phone.
In an interview with The Light, Williams’ wife Carole, said she told her brother that she wanted to see that he was alright, but he replied, "No. I don’t want you to come up here."
‘They admired each other’
Concerned, Carole Williams kept her brother talking on the telephone while her husband drove up to Duncan’s house on Bloomfield Road, west of Sebastopol.
Of Rodney Williams and Duncan’s relationship, Carole Williams said, "they were good friends – they admired each other and were buddies."
According to Carole Williams, as she was speaking to her brother she heard the sound of his dog barking, probably as her husband was arriving at the house. Carole Williams had not told her brother that her husband was on the way. She said she heard Duncan put the phone down and then heard two loud popping sounds. Her brother did not return to the phone and she could not reach her husband on his cellular phone. Frightened, she phoned the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.
Carole Williams said that she knew her brother kept guns in the house but never thought he was a danger to anyone but himself.
Sheriff’s Deputies arrived at 2:42 a.m. Duncan’s phone line was off the hook and he did not respond to deputies who called to him on a loud-speaker.
SWAT team called
By about 4 a.m. as the standoff continued, a SWAT team was summoned. According to a statement from the Petaluma City Police Department, which is investigating the incident, after spotting Williams’ body on the front porch, deputies fired pepper gas into the house. By 4:30 a.m. a deputy had made contact with Duncan, who reportedly told the deputy that he had "killed Jesus Christ," possibly in reference to his slain brother-in-law and friend. Duncan then began phoning neighbors, making incoherent statements, according to deputies, who said he made references to committing a blue suicide, in which police are provoked into opening fire.
At 5:40 a.m. Duncan left the telephone and strode out on the front porch holding a handgun. He reportedly raised it at the deputies, who opened fire. The statement said four deputies fired on Duncan who received 11 shots to the body and was killed.
Deputies stormed the house, and a medical team pronounced both Duncan and Williams dead on the scene. As is standard police procedure in Sonoma County, all four deputies have been put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation of the shooting.
Petaluma Police are investigating the use of lethal force by deputies Sgt. Steve Brown, Brad James, Henri Boustany, and Mike Crean.
– Larken Bradley contributed to this report.