Alameda man accused of killing 4 family members has criminal record, spent 60 days in jail

ALAMEDA, Calif. (KGO) -- There was a brief court appearance on Friday for Shane Killian, the Alameda man accused of killing four members of his own family on Wednesday night.

The victims included his wife, his young son and his in-laws. A fifth victim, a one-year-old, survived the shooting, but he's in critical condition.

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The 54-year-old Killian has a criminal past.

He served 60 days in jail for misdemeanor assault on a government official in North Carolina 13 years ago. The incident involved a gun at a gas station, which led to a high-speed chase.

"The speeds traveled during this incident reached 125 miles-an-hour in a 55 miles-an-hour zone. Ultimately, Mr. Killian ended up wrecking his vehicle, then fled on foot, and was took into custody within an hour of the incident," said Ryan Cunningham, Assistant Police Chief for the town of Murphy, North Carolina.

Michael Saxby worked with Killian at the Martinez Refinery. He says he and some of his colleagues showed up in court Friday afternoon.

"We saw him but he never really looked at us. So he didn't acknowledge that we were there," Saxby said.

Saxby says Killian was at work on Wednesday before the shootings took place.

He says while he had a few personality quirks, no one thought he was capable of the things he's alleged to have done.

"Nothing really happened on the job that anyone felt was something that would set a guy off to make him take off," Saxby said.

Alameda Unified School District sent an email out to parents on Friday to notify families in the community and provide resources on mental health and gun violence. It said it was exploring the possibility of having counselors on campus next week for staff and families in the wake of the tragic event.

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"Alameda is a small town, and news like this spreads quickly. So, too, do the emotional reverberations of such tragedies. We encourage you to stay connected to family and friends in the coming days, to stay alert to signs of emotional distress in your children and yourself, and to seek support if you need it. As a community, Alameda has shown itself to be strong, kind, and generous time and time again, and I hope we all can draw on those qualities to help ourselves and each other process this terrible incident," Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi wrote in the email.

A motive for Wednesday night's shooting on Kitty Hawk Lane in Alameda is still unclear.

A sense of disbelief also felt by Saxby and his coworkers here in the Bay Area too.

"We really didn't believe what actually happened until we recognized his house and vehicle, and we started putting two and two together," said Saxby.

A motive for Wednesday night's shootings is still unclear.

Killian is expected to be arraigned in court on July 22.