DALLAS (AP) – A Dallas police officer was arrested Thursday for two counts of capital homicide after a man told investigators he abducted and killed two people according to the officer’s instructions in 2017, the authorities.
Bryan Riser, a 13-year veteran of the force, was arrested Thursday morning and taken to the Dallas County Jail for trial, according to a police department statement. One of his lawyers could not be identified immediately.
Riser was arrested for the unconnected murders of 31-year-old Liza Saenz and 61-year-old Albert Douglas after a man showed up in August 2019 and told police he had abducted and killed them. at the direction of Riser, Police Chief Eddie Garcia said during a press conference. He said investigators do not know the motives for the killings, but that they were not related to Riser’s police work.
“We received information through a witness who implicated Riser in both murders,” Garcia said.
Saenz’s body was removed from the Trinity River on March 10, 2017, with multiple gunshot wounds, the chief said. Douglas was missing that year and his body has not been found.
Police did not immediately respond to an email asking if the person involved Riser in the killings has been charged.
Riser joined the department in 2008 and worked as a patrol officer before his arrest. Garcia acknowledged that Riser had been patrolling Dallas while under investigation for murder.
Riser has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation, police said.
“We’re going to speed up our process so that this individual is no longer in the department,” Garcia said.
“We will not allow anyone to soil this badge,” the chief said, noting that the FBI was assisting in the investigation.
Riser had not been admitted to jail in early Thursday afternoon, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
A spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said her office had no information about the case.