Minutes before his family was killed in Alameda, he called his uncle to plan his escape
OAKLAND – Shane Killian’s neighbor heard a loud noise on the night of July 10, 2024, but thought it was someone setting off the last of his fireworks from Independence Day.
Instead, a resident of Kitty Hawk Road in Alameda witnessed five family members being killed by neighbors, shot one at a time, allegedly by Killian. Seconds later, one of the victims, 70-year-old Michel Angel Carcamo Ramirez, arrived at the neighbor’s door and started ringing his doorbell, the neighbor testified at Killian’s trial last month.
“My son-in-law Shane shot me and the whole family,” said Carcamo Ramirez. “I’m dying.”
Carcamo Ramirez would succumb to his gunshot wounds that night. Police also found the bodies of Killian’s son, William Killian, 6, his mother-in-law, Marta Elena Morales Diaz, his 1-year-old son, Wesley, who died days later, and his wife, Brenda Natali Morales, 36, who was found with a gun in her hand, according to police testimony.
Just minutes before the massacre, Morales called his uncle, with plans to run away from Killian to visit family out of state. She said Killian was drinking, harassing her with his insane jealousy, and would “get into fights with her a lot” when he was drunk, the uncle said. After a few seconds, Shane answered the phone.
“And what did you say?” asked the Alameda County prosecutor.
“He was drunk, he said he didn’t trust Brenda,” answered my uncle. “I told him that he was drunk, and that he could talk to me the next day when he was sober…He said, ‘Yes, we will talk, and everything will be fine.'”
But after a few minutes, the shooting started, according to the police
Prosecutors allege that after shooting all five family members at his home in the 400 block of Kitty Hawk Road, Killian called 911 and reported that Morales “shot all of us and shot my kids,” before hanging up. He repeated the claim during a subsequent police interview, according to court records, adding that he became angry after Killian “overdid it” on his way home from work and drank half a dozen beers.
At the end of the trial, Killian’s lawyers said prosecutors failed to meet the minimum legal burden for a mistrial, which requires them to find probable cause to proceed with the case. Defense attorney Christina Moore painted Morales as an “emotional person” and Killian as a “voice of reason” based on the uncle’s description of the phone call.
Morales, Moore said, expressed an intention to remove their children “without permission, without negotiation,” while Killian wanted to talk.
Judge Clifford Blakely said Carcamo Ramirez’s “death declaration” painted a different picture.
“He was crying hysterically as he was bleeding, and he actually showed the witness the holes in his body as he was bleeding, saying, ‘I’m dying, and Shane shot me and the whole family,'” Blakely said. “A few minutes before this terrible tragedy, (Morales’ uncle) received a call from his niece Brenda, who he said he never called, who was upset and told him that she wanted to go to Arkansas and take the children.”
A trial date for Killian has not been set. He is still in jail without bail, facing five counts of murder.
