A 21-year-old alleged gang member was behind bars Thursday on suspicion of fatally shooting a man and woman in Emerald Hills over the course of the last 12 months.
Detectives arrested Kenneth Earl Brooks of San Diego on Wednesday in connection with the slayings of Tamara Shellum two weeks ago and Arif Abdalla last year in the suburban enclave east of Interstate 805 and south of state Route 94, according to San Diego police.
Shellum, 44, was found dead shortly before 10 a.m. May 9 in a parked car with bullet holes in its windshield on Bethune Court, alongside Emerald Hills Park.
Investigators determined that gunshots had been reported in the area of the park late the previous night, though it was unclear if they were those that killed Shellum, said Lt. Andra Brown.
Abdalla, 28, was mortally wounded by gunfire in the 5200 block of Lenox Drive, just east of Euclid Avenue, on the evening of May 31, 2020. He succumbed to his wounds in a hospital a week later. A second man suffered non- life-threatening injuries in the firearm assault.
Brooks also is suspected of opening fire on an occupied home in the 2600 block of Curlew Street in Park West last year. That shooting resulted in no reported injuries.
Police have disclosed no suspected specific motive for any of the shootings, though Brown said “gang allegations (were) attached to each of these crimes.”
Brooks was booked into San Diego Central Jail on suspicion of two counts each of murder and attempted murder, along with a charge of firing a gun into an occupied dwelling or vehicle. He was being held without bail pending arraignment, tentatively scheduled for June 4.