U.S. Marshals took Brian Anthony Williams into custody without incident on Oct. 6, 2026, at a Mission Beach restaurant where the 50-year-old had worked more than eight years as a chef under the name Troy Williams.
Fox News Digital reported that deputies tracked him to Miss B's Coconut Club in the 3700 block of Mission Boulevard after federal agents developed information in September that he was living in San Diego under an assumed identity.
Williams had been wanted since 2012 in connection with the alleged kidnapping, assault, and shooting of a woman who was abandoned in a field in northwest Davenport, Iowa. He now sits in federal custody pending extradition to Iowa, closing a nearly 14-year gap that stretched nearly 2,000 miles from the original crime scene.
A U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson said someone recognized Williams from a media interview and alerted authorities. That tip, combined with the September lead placing him in San Diego, put agents on the restaurant.
FOX 5 in San Diego reported that Williams had risen inside the kitchen from line cook to head chef during his long tenure. The Times of San Diego had published a February profile describing that climb. In local interviews he discussed growing up in New York and offered polished lines about community.
Williams told interviewers, "Togetherness is how we get better," and "Kindness does win." Those appearances helped keep his public face intact until a viewer connected the chef on camera to the long-wanted fugitive.
U.S. Marshal Ted Kamatchus framed the capture as a direct answer to anyone who believes distance and a new name can outlast federal pursuit.
"This arrest is a perfect example of those who think they have bested law enforcement and evaded arrest,"
Agents made the arrest at the business without incident. Williams remains held federally while Iowa authorities prepare to bring him back to face the original state case.
Authorities charged Williams in 2012 with first-degree kidnapping, assault causing serious injury, conspiracy to commit a felony, and first-degree arson. The allegations center on a woman who was kidnapped, assaulted, and shot before being left in a field in northwest Davenport.
Federal authorities later added a charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution after he left the jurisdiction. The record does not name the woman or list every alleged co-participant, only that several others were involved in the 2012 episode.
Investigators will need to move him through the extradition process and then litigate the Iowa counts that have remained open for nearly 14 years. No public results have been released in this package about the current medical or legal status of the woman named in the original allegations.
Restaurant general manager Eddie Jurado, who once roomed with Williams, told FOX 5 that staff were stunned. Jurado described a sharp split between the man they knew at work and the identity now attached to the arrest.
"Like, who is he? He was a good guy here, loved by everybody,"
Jurado added that the revelation produced conflicting feelings in real time.
"It’s a mixed emotion," "One minute I'm mad that he lied to us. Next minute, he was good to us... It's actually kind of scary."
Fox News Digital reached out to the U.S. Marshals Service and to management at Miss B's Coconut Club for additional comment. No further responses appear in the available package.
Williams is in federal custody. The next procedural step is extradition to Iowa so state prosecutors can proceed on the 2012 charges. Authorities have not publicly detailed in this package whether additional federal counts beyond unlawful flight will be pursued once he returns.
The arrest itself rested on two concrete developments: the September information that he was living under an assumed identity in San Diego, and the citizen recognition from a media interview that confirmed his presence at the Mission Beach restaurant. Those facts turned a cold fugitive file into an on-site custody event.
For nearly a decade and a half he built a visible life as Troy Williams, including more than eight years in the same kitchen and repeated local media exposure. The public profile that once helped him blend in ultimately supplied the tip that ended the run.
Law enforcement still must complete the handoff to Iowa courts, present the evidence behind the kidnapping, assault, arson, and conspiracy counts, and resolve the federal flight charge in proper sequence. None of those adjudications have occurred yet. Guilt remains a matter for the courts, not a completed finding.
Long-term fugitive cases test whether warrants stay active, whether tips get worked, and whether assumed identities can outrun coordinated federal and local effort. This one did not.
When a man can cook in plain sight for years while serious violent-crime warrants sit open, the public is entitled to see the system close the gap. The Marshals just did.
