The CEO of a swanky fashion company and his wife were found shot dead outside their home in the hills overlooking UC Berkeley on Friday morning.
Berkeley police were called to the area around 10:48 a.m. Friday after shots were heard. Cops found married couple, Bryan, 61, and Michelle Walker, 63, and performed life-saving measures. Both were then pronounced dead.
The Walkers ran a women’s fashion company, Bryn Walker. The pair designed clothing with “luxurious fabrics” aimed at “women who demand comfort, quality and easy sophistication,” according to their website. The company had locations in Berkeley and Massachusetts.
Haunting surveillance video reviewed by CBS, too horrifying for them to play on air, unveiled the mysterious circumstances of the shooting. The first gunshot can be heard on video around 10:43 a.m. Friday, and then a man is heard crying and screaming in a “very dramatic” scene.
Then a second gunshot rang out a short time later, “and it was dead quiet,” CBS reported.
A neighbor corroborated what was caught on camera.
“We heard two bangs, not too far apart, one louder, the other more muffled,” neighbor Alessandro Isolani told CBS. “It’s shocking. I’ve lived up here on Panoramic Hill for 20-something years, and I have never seen any violent crime up here.”
Isolani said the couple had been in a long-term marriage and he seemed like a good member of the community.
“By all neighborhood accounts, [Bryan Walker is] a good guy, solid member of the community, long-term marriage.”
Oakland police are leading the investigation, with the Berkeley Police Department assisting.
Oakland Police Assistant Chief Casey Johnson said investigators have not ruled out a murder-suicide.
“We aren’t looking currently for anyone at large,” Johnson said. “There is no current threat to the neighborhood.”
One firearm was located at the scene.
UC Berkeley police sent out a community advisory after the shooting informing students that there were “no known or ongoing threats to the campus.”
