Man on the run from Iowa authorities for 14 years becomes a local San Diego celebrity. Then a single tip leads to his arrest in the kitchen

A popular San Diego chef who went by the name Troy Williams was taken into custody this week after authorities said he had been living under that identity for years. NBC Nightly News posted a report on Instagram from the account @nbcnightlynews that has gained 1.9 million views. The segment described the case as a double identity involving a man wanted in connection with a 2012 kidnapping in Iowa.

Liz Kreutz reported that the man is actually 50-year-old Brian Anthony Williams. According to the U.S. Marshals Service, he had been living a secret life after going on the run following his involvement in the case. Eddie Jurado, general manager of Miss B’s Coconut Club and Williams’ former roommate, said in the report, “This is so wild, like, uh, like Netflix-style wild.”

Williams worked at the restaurant as head chef for more than a decade. In footage, a staff member was heard saying, “Troy’s always popping off.” Jurado added that people at the restaurant knew Troy as a vegan and straight edge. “He was a good guy here, loved by everybody,” Jurado stated.

Officials outline the charges from the 2012 Iowa case and the years spent under an assumed identity

In 2013, Brian Anthony Williams was charged in the Southern District of Iowa for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution related to a 2012 Davenport kidnapping case, the U.S. Marshals Service said. He was charged in Scott County on October 26, 2012, for first-degree kidnapping, assault, willful injury causing serious injury, conspiracy to commit a felony, and first-degree arson.

According to the agency, the charges involve his alleged role in an October 8, 2012, assault. Williams and other co-conspirators are alleged to have kidnapped, assaulted, and shot a woman before leaving her in a northwest Davenport, Iowa, field. The Davenport Police Department requested help from the U.S. Marshals Southern Iowa Fugitive Task Force to locate him.

Williams remained a fugitive for nearly 14 years. He appeared on local news stations in the Quad Cities as a most wanted fugitive and was posted on the United States Marshals Service Southern District of Iowa’s webpage, officials said.

In September 2026, the U.S. Marshals Service developed information indicating he was living in San Diego under the assumed identity of “Troy Williams” and working as a chef. Long-running fugitive cases often end in sudden captures, such as when police in Rhode Island took a man into custody after 20 years to serve his sentence for the Lion King boat heist conviction.

Additional investigation showed that the individual believed to be Williams had appeared in local publications and television news reports under that assumed identity, the Marshals stated. On October 6, U.S. Marshals from San Diego went to the 3700 block of Mission Boulevard in Mission Beach. They located Williams inside the business and took him into custody without incident.

Williams will remain in U.S. Marshals custody pending his extradition to Iowa, according to the agency. In one television segment shown in the NBC report, Williams said, “We’re just like family. All of us are really good friends.” He was also the subject of a local Black History Month profile earlier this year that described growing up poor in the projects of New York.

Authorities told NBC News that his media appearances and interviews helped lead them to Williams. One man interviewed outside said, “Clearly not from New York. There’s a whole other person that we don’t know, and that’s what’s- that’s honestly, that’s, that scares me a little bit, man, or a lot.” Fugitives who reinvent themselves in new cities can be undone by exposure, as a Toronto man allegedly spent years faking being a pilot and now faces up to 20 years in prison.

U.S. Marshal Ted Kamatchus, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Iowa, said, “This arrest is a perfect example of those who think they have bested law enforcement and evaded arrest.” He added, “Deputy U.S. Marshals remain resolute in their relentless pursuit of the most dangerous offenders in our society.”

Viewers reacted to the NBC Nightly News video with surprise at the idea of someone living openly while wanted. One commenter wrote, “How the hell you on the run and tryna be famous at the same time.”

Another stated, “Bro just snitched on himself.” A third viewer commented, “You never know who’s who..” One more wrote, “It’s crazy how he could’ve had an amazing life. Literally could’ve moved from his old place and start fresh and get to this point without having to have kidnap someone.”