For years, customers at a popular San Diego restaurant knew their chef as Troy Williams. He ran the kitchen, appeared in television segments, and became a familiar face in the Mission Beach community. But the name he used was not his own.
On October 6, 2026, U.S. Marshals walked into a business on Mission Boulevard and arrested the 50-year-old without incident. They identified him as Brian Anthony Williams, a fugitive wanted in Iowa since 2012.
Williams had built a career at Miss B’s Coconut Club, where colleagues knew him for more than a decade. His public appearances, including interviews about his restaurant work, eventually helped federal marshals identify him.
The arrest ended nearly 14 years on the run from charges arising from the kidnapping, assault, and shooting of a woman in Davenport, Iowa. The U.S. Marshals Service announced his capture the same day, revealing the criminal case behind the chef’s second identity.
Behind The Name
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At Miss B’s Coconut Club, Williams had worked for roughly a decade and served as head chef for much of that time. His colleagues believed they knew the man running their kitchen.
Eddie Jurado, the restaurant’s general manager and Williams’ former roommate, described the shock of learning his colleague’s identity in an interview with NBC 7 San Diego.
Jurado had known Williams for about 10 years. They worked together through the COVID-19 pandemic, and at one point shared a home. He recalled receiving a call telling him the chef would not be returning to work and being instructed to search for Brian Anthony Williams online.
The search led him to a photograph of the man he had known as Troy.
In the television report, Jurado described Williams as someone who avoided alcohol and drugs and was well-liked by his coworkers. Discovering that the chef had been living under another identity left him questioning how much he had known about his former roommate.
Williams had also put himself in the public eye.
Earlier in 2026, he appeared in a CBS 8 San Diego feature about Miss B’s Coconut Club. He was also featured in a local Black History Month profile, describing his upbringing in New York City and his path into cooking.
Those appearances gave the public a picture of a chef who had established himself in San Diego. They also left a record of his face and assumed name in published reports.
The Iowa Case
The criminal case began on October 8, 2012, in Davenport, Iowa.
Williams and several other people were accused of kidnapping and assaulting a woman before shooting her and leaving her in a field in northwest Davenport.
The woman survived the attack, according to reporting on the case. The Marshals Service’s October 2026 release described the kidnapping, assault and shooting but did not provide details about her injuries or recovery.
On October 26, 2012, Williams was charged in Scott County with first-degree kidnapping, assault with willful injury causing serious injury, conspiracy to commit a felony and first-degree arson.
The Marshals Service did not explain the circumstances underlying the arson charge in its announcement.
Williams subsequently became a fugitive. In 2013, he was federally charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
The Davenport Police Department requested help from the Southern Iowa Fugitive Task Force, and Williams’ name appeared in public notices identifying wanted fugitives. He was featured in local television coverage in the Quad Cities region and on the Marshals Service’s Southern District of Iowa website.
Despite that publicity, he remained beyond the reach of the criminal proceedings for almost 14 years.
Hidden In Public
The break in the search came in September 2026, when U.S. Marshals developed information placing Williams in San Diego.
The information indicated that he was using the name Troy Williams and working as a chef. Marshals examined local publications and television coverage featuring a man using that identity.
Those reports helped them connect the San Diego chef to the person wanted in Iowa.
The Marshals Service has not publicly explained who provided the initial information, how Williams obtained or maintained his assumed identity, or precisely when he first arrived in California.
On October 6, deputy U.S. marshals in San Diego went to the 3700 block of Mission Boulevard in Mission Beach. They located Williams inside the business and arrested him without resistance.
His arrest stunned coworkers who had spent years alongside him. Jurado told NBC 7 that Williams had managed the kitchen for roughly eight or nine years after the restaurant’s original chef left.
Jurado also expressed sympathy for the woman at the center of the Iowa case, while describing his disbelief at the discovery about his former roommate.
Back To Iowa
Williams remained in U.S. Marshals custody in San Diego following his arrest, pending extradition to Iowa.
U.S. Marshal Ted Kamatchus, who leads the Southern District of Iowa, described the capture as an example of the agency’s continued pursuit of fugitives who believe they have escaped prosecution.
Williams faces the outstanding charges from the 2012 case, along with the federal unlawful flight charge filed in 2013. Those charges are accusations, not findings of guilt.
As of October 8, 2026, no extradition date or new court disposition had been established in the records reviewed for this report.