Troy Williams, the head chef at Miss B’s Coconut Club, described his rough upbringing in the Queensbridge Housing Project in New York City in a Times of San Diego profile. To hear him tell it, he overcame police assaults, racial discrimination and poverty to become one of San Diego’s up-and-coming chefs.
What he didn’t say — and what nobody else knew until U.S. Marshals revealed it on Tuesday — was that Troy Williams was not his real name. He had been living under a false identity, duping media outlets and federal agents alike.
Instead of running from the mean streets surrounding the Queensboro Bridge, the man known as Troy Williams had actually been running from the United States Marshals Service in Iowa for 14 years. He was fleeing prosecution for his alleged role in the kidnapping and assault of a woman, whom law enforcement says he and others later shot and left in a field outside of Davenport, Iowa.
On October 6, U.S. Marshals arrested Brian Anthony Williams inside Miss B’s Coconut Club in Mission Beach, after he had spent 14 years on the lam.
“This arrest is a perfect example of those who think they have bested law enforcement and evaded arrest,” said U.S. Marshal Ted Kamatchus, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Iowa. “Deputy U.S. Marshals remain resolute in their relentless pursuit of the most dangerous offenders in our society.”
Williams was charged in October 2012 for first-degree kidnapping, assault causing serious injury, conspiracy to commit a felony and first-degree arson, according to the Marshals Service.
Williams is now being held until he is extradited to Iowa to face charges.
The ownership of Miss B’s Coconut Club could not be immediately reached for comment.
