A man accused of fatally shooting a University of Alabama student, a father of three and a dog at a home where the victims were pet-sitting was not a stranger to them, authorities said.
De’Kendrick Crawford, 24, has been charged with capital murder in connection with the deaths of Jazmine Alexis Bates, 22, and Jose Felix Alvarez-Duenas, 31, who were found dead Monday inside a home in Brookwood, Alabama, according to WVTM.
Investigators said Bates and Alvarez-Duenas, both employees at a Tuscaloosa restaurant, were discovered after the homeowner, who was outside the United States, checked her home security cameras and noticed a suspicious person on her back porch in the early morning hours.
“We were able to identify who that suspicious person was that was seen on the doorbell cameras,” Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jack Kennedy said Tuesday.
Kennedy said the person seen on the cameras was familiar to the victims and the homeowner, explaining that they had previously worked together at a local business.
“They all worked together, they all knew each other and socialized together at some point in the past,” Kennedy said.
Alvarez-Duenas, described as a single father of three, and Bates both worked at Buffalo Phil’s in Tuscaloosa. Bates was expected to graduate from the University of Alabama in December.
Kennedy said the security footage proved “crucial” to the case and helped investigators identify the suspect more quickly.
Bates and Alvarez-Duenas’ bodies were found moments after arriving at the home for a welfare check.
The homeowner had grown concerned for Alvarez-Duenas’ welfare after she was unable to contact him.
“Immediately upon opening the front door, there was a deceased male lying on the floor that was identified as the person that was house-sitting for her,” Kennedy said.
“Upon clearing the residence, they were able to find a second deceased individual, a female,” Kennedy said. “She was in the back bedroom in a closet.”
Crawford wasn’t at the home when police arrived – and he was later found at a relative’s apartment in Northport – around 22 miles from Brookwood.
He was arrested after an hours-long standoff and 10 hours after the two bodies were found.
“After four hours of tactical operations including drones, tear gas, walls and doors being breached and attics being searched with K-9s, yeah, he never gave up. He cared more about himself than the victims,” Kennedy said.
Police are still probing a motive.
“We don’t know why he targeted them. They were not doing anything wrong,” Kennedy said.
“They had done nothing wrong to him. None of his acquaintances know why this occurred.”
At the time of the shooting, Crawford was wanted over a firearm offense – dating back to May, where he allegedly opened fire at a building on the University of Alabama campus.
“He was not a University of Alabama employee. He worked for some type of construction or some other type of company that was contracted at UA,” Kennedy said.
“He was terminated from his job out there and as he drove away, fired some shots out the window of a vehicle. Some of those shots struck a building near Coleman Coliseum.”
Crawford appeared in court Wednesday on capital murder charges and the firearm offense. He was denied bond, WBMA reported.
He could face more charges such as animal cruelty, police said.
