A California man faces a murder charge after he was accused of conducting a targeted, vigilante-style slaying of a registered sex offender in the San Francisco Bay Area, authorities said.
The Fremont Police Department responded to a call of a altercation between two men on Sept. 18 and found a 71-year-old man unresponsive and bleeding from significant stab wounds. Another man, 29-year-old Varun Suresh, was found standing outside the residence on the 600 block of Upper Vintners Circle. Suresh was arrested and a knife was recovered from the scene, authorities said.
Suresh told police that he specifically researched registered sex offenders and deliberately targeted David Brimmer because of his age and criminal record, according to authorities.
Brimmer was convicted in 1995 of committing lewd and lascivious acts with a child, authorities said. His home address, which is located near the scene of the attack, was previously listed on California’s registry of sex offenders as required by Megan’s Law. The entry has since been removed.
Police said the two men engaged in a violent struggle and at one point Suresh chased Brimmer into an unrelated home and continued to attack him. Although officers attempted to provide lifesaving care, Brimmer died from his injuries at the scene.
Read more: This L.A. suburb says it’s a ‘dumping ground’ for sex offenders. Residents want to stop that
According to court documents obtained by TV station KTVU News, Suresh told police that he used the Megan’s Law website to find Brimmer’s address and then decided to “pose as a CPA going door-to-door looking for new clients” to lure him out.
Megan’s Law requires all law enforcement agencies in California to make information about registered sex offenders available to the public, including through an online database.
Suresh allegedly told police that the killing was “honestly really fun” and that he “didn’t feel sad at all,” the TV station reported, citing court documents. Detectives found a screenshot of Brimmer’s address from the Megan’s Law website taken on Suresh’s phone just 45 minutes before they received the 911 call, according to the documents.
He allegedly told police he had waited for years to kill a sex offender, because of the pain they cause children, according to the documents obtained by KTVU.
Suresh was charged this week with murder and first-degree residential burglary with special allegations for planning and sophistication of the crime, violent conduct, use of a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury, according to the criminal complaint.
He is currently being held without bail in Santa Rita Jail and is scheduled to appear back in court for a plea hearing on Oct. 14, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
