By Canadian Press

Dallas police officer charged with 2 counts capital murder

Mar 4, 2021 | 2:27 PM

DALLAS — A Dallas police officer was arrested Thursday on two counts of capital murder in two unconnected 2017 killings that weren’t related to his police work, authorities said.

Bryan Riser, a 13-year veteran of the force, was taken into custody Thursday morning and taken to the Dallas County Jail for processing, according to a statement from the police department. A lawyer for him couldn’t immediately be identified.

Riser was arrested in the unconnected killings of Liza Saenz and Albert Douglas after someone came forward in August 2019 and told police he had kidnapped and killed them at Riser’s direction, police Chief Eddie Garcia said during a news conference. He said investigators don’t know the motives for the killings, but that they were not related to Riser’s police work.

“We received information through a witness that implicated Riser in both murders,” Garcia said.

Saenz’s body was pulled from the Trinity River on March 10, 2017, with several bullet wounds, the chief said. Douglas was reported missing that year and his body hasn’t been found.

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Police did not immediately respond to an email asking if the person who implicated Riser in the killings has been charged.

Riser joined the department in 2008 and was working as a patrol officer before his arrest. Police said he has been put on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.

“We’re going to expedite our process so this individual is no longer with the department,” Garcia said.

“We will not allow anyone to tarnish this badge,” the chief said, noting that the FBI was assisting in the investigation.

Riser had not been booked into the jail as of early Thursday afternoon, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for the Dallas County district attorney’s office said her office didn’t have information on the case.

The Associated Press