A Dallas police officer was arrested Thursday for two counts of manslaughter, more than a year and a half after a man told investigators he kidnapped and killed two people according to the officer’s instructions in 2017, according to 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. A Riser’s attorney could not be identified immediately.
Riser was arrested in the unconnected killings of Liza Saenz, 31, and Albert Douglas, 61, after a man showed up in August 2019 and told police he had kidnapped them and died at the direction of Riser, Police Chief Eddie Garcia said during a press conference. He said investigators are unaware of the motives for the killings, but said they were not related to Riser’s police work.
Garcia did not explain why Riser was arrested nearly 20 months after the witness appeared and police declined to answer further questions about the time. Riser joined the department in 2008 and Garcia acknowledged he had been patrolling Dallas while under investigation for the murders.
Dallas Police Department
The chief stressed that his homicide division and the FBI were still investigating the killings and said the department was reviewing Riser’s arrests.
Saenz’s body was removed from the Trinity River southwest of Dallas on March 10, 2017, with multiple gunshot wounds, the chief said. Douglas was missing that year and his body has not been found.
Earlier, three people were arrested and charged with capital murder in Saenz’s murder, according to an affidavit from Riser’s arrest. He does not identify any of them by their name.
One of them allegedly told police that he and Riser had been involved in robberies when they were young. Recently, they drew up a plan to steal drug-protected homes, but did not follow suit, according to the affidavit.
Instead, the man told investigators that Riser offered to pay him a total of $ 9,500 to kidnap and kill Douglas and then Saenz. Both were shot and their bodies were dumped into the river, according to the court record.
The affidavit states that Riser said the hired killer Saenz was an “informant.” The document is not detailed and police declined to answer questions about whether Saenz had any relationship with the department.
Murder charges are not the agent’s first alleged crimes. In May 2017, Riser faced a charge of domestic violence for alleged assault and injury to an ex-girlfriend. It was not immediately known how this case was resolved. Police said Riser “received summary discipline for an incident.”
Riser has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation. Garcia said “we will speed up our process” toward his dismissal.
“We will not allow anyone to soil this badge,” the chief said.
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.