SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Flowers now sit at the steps of the home where two people were killed and an 80-year-old woman was seriously injured in a shooting Wednesday in Point Loma.
Friends of the woman who didn’t survive say their friend had expressed concern about her safety. She says the shooter and all three victims were related.
"She and her mother, brought guns to my house because they were afraid Billy was going to do something," said a woman named Jennifer, who told ABC 10News she was the victim's best friend.
William Bushey is facing two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in connection with the shooting. Police say the woman who survived the shooting is the Bushey's mother.
RELATED: Police identify suspected shooter after 2 killed, one injured in Point Loma shooting
San Diego Police Captain Matt Dobbs met with ABC 10News Thursday to answer our questions about prior calls to the home.
He says officers responded to the house twice in the last week after calls from family members concerned about William Bushey's behavior. One call was on Friday, Aug. 16, and another was on Monday, Aug. 19.
"There was mention of concern about weapons; based on the body-worn camera footage that I watched, it was actually determined to be a BB gun or a pellet gun rifle that they had actually moved out of the house and into the car," said Dobbs.
Dobbs says there were comments about guns on the officers' body-worn camera footage of the calls but that the family didn't actually know if there were any in the house.
"On the footage that I saw, there was no request to take custody of any weapons," says Dobbs.
The captain says the family had also tried to hide kitchen knives from Bushey. He says that on the first call, officers were at the home for well over an hour, and for over 40 minutes during the second call to the home.
In both instances, Dobbs says Bushey did not meet the criteria for an emergency psychiatric hold, so officers left the family with resources.
Dobbs says that criteria would be a person being an immediate danger to themselves or others.
ABC 10News asked Dobbs if a family member expressing concern or fear about Bushey didn't meet the criteria, and Dobbs said the following:
"No, based on the conversations that the officers had with the family, he was just verbally aggressive, there were no specific threats made to anyone in the family, no crimes had been committed. They were just concerned with his behavior."
Captain Dobbs extended his condolences to the victims' families during his interview with 10News but stood by his officers' actions.
"We ask our officers every day to make very difficult decisions, and even when they make the right decision, which in this case they did, tragedies can still happen, and don’t think for a minute that the officers aren't second-guessing themselves based on the results that happened in this," said Captain Dobbs.
Bushey's first court appearance is set for Friday afternoon.
