San Diego police called to Point Loma home ahead of killings – NBC 7 San Diego

In the week before a Point Loma man allegedly shot his mother and killed two other people, officers were dispatched multiple times to a home on Zola Street, San Diego police said Thursday.

Investigators have not yet identified the other two victims, but on Thursday they said they believe the killer is 60-year-old William Bushey, who lived in the house with his mother for at least 15 years. A neighbor told NBC 7 she believes it is more than two decades.

San Diego Police Captain Matt Dobbs said he reviewed police dispatches over the past two years and found that officers were called to the home on both the afternoon of Aug. 16 and the morning of Aug. 19, just two days before June Bushey and the others were shot. Both incidents were prompted by family members' concerns about William Bushey's behavior.

“We ask our officers to make very difficult decisions every day, and even when they make the right decision – which was the case in this case – tragedies can still happen,” Dobbs said. “And don't think for a minute that officers don't doubt their own decisions in light of the results of this incident.”

Dobbs said officers determined through conversations with William Bushey himself and others that his behavior, although verbally aggressive, both times did not meet the legal requirements for an emergency psychiatric commitment. A psychiatric commitment, also known as a 5150, is ordered when someone poses an immediate danger to themselves or others, for example.

“There were no specific threats against anyone in the family,” Dobbs said. “No crimes were committed. They were just concerned about his behavior.”

William Bushey, 60, is accused of killing his mother and two other people in a Point Loma home on Wednesday afternoon, NBC 7's Shelby Bremer reports.

Family members expressed to police that they were concerned about guns in the house but didn't know if there were any, Dobbs said. The 911 call on the 16th raised that exact issue, but the captain said — based on what he saw and heard recorded by an officer's body-worn camera — that one of the weapons investigated was a pellet gun or shotgun. Police said they learned on the 19th that the item had been moved from the house into a car.

“They weren't even sure if there were guns in the house, and I don't know where the gun used in the murder came from,” Dobbs said.

Dobbs also said that family members told police they were afraid William Bushey would attack them with a knife, so they took the kitchen knives away and tried to hide them.

Dobbs reiterated that officers made the right decision on both calls.

“In both cases, they correctly determined that this was a family disorder,” Dobbs said. “No crimes had been committed. Based on their conversations with Mr. Bushey himself in one case and family members in another, he did not meet the criteria for emergency psychiatric admission, so they left and left the family with means to resolve the problem through civil means.”

These resources included information on evictions and restraining orders, although at least the latter had not been requested, according to Dobbs.

Two people are dead and a woman in her 80s is fighting for her life after she was allegedly shot by her son. NBC 7's Dave Summers reports August 21, 2024.

Dobbs said the first call on the 16th involved a mental health emergency response team (PERT) and officers spent about an hour de-escalating the situation; when the call was made three days later, only officers were present.

“Police officers spoke to Mr. Bushey for quite some time on the 19th and he showed no signs of mental disorder or mental illness,” Dobbs said.

What is certain, however, is that William Bushey was arrested on Wednesday, a shotgun was found at the crime scene and two people were shot.

William Bushey is currently being held without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on double murder and attempted murder charges in downtown Superior Court on Friday afternoon.

San Diego police said the dead were a woman in her 60s and a man in his 30s. Their connection to the suspect has not been released.