Police Make Arrest in Walnut Creek Homicide

Update: 5:45 p.m. Tuesday

Contra Costa County Sheriff investigators are looking into a homicide that occurred in unincorporated Walnut Creek on Monday night.

At about 7:12 p.m., sheriff's deputies responded to a medical call on the 2300 block of San Miguel Drive where they found a man who had died.

The victim was later identified as 48-year-old Jeffrey Mead Patterson of Hayward.

While at the scene, deputies arrested 48-year-old Shannon Mitchell Alexander Sr. of Walnut Creek. Alexander was booked into the Martinez Detention Facility on suspicion of homicide. He is being held on $1 million bail.

"The coroner's findings revealed Jeffrey Patterson suffered from blunt trauma to his body," reported Jimmy Lee, public information officer for the sheriff's office. The cause of death is pending, said Lee.

The body was found in the yard in front of the house, said Lee.

Lee declined comment when asked whether there was any drug or alcohol involvement in the incident.

Detectives continue to investigate the motive. Patterson and Alexander knew each other. No other suspects are being sought in this case.

The 2300 block of San Miguel Drive is a pretty residential neighborhood with a winding road, near the intersection of Mountain View Boulevard, about a mile from Walnut Creek's Shell Ridge Open Space.

The homicide took place outside the city limits of Walnut Creek. There has not been a homicide within the city limits in 2011. The most recent one was about a mile from Monday's murder scene, down San Miguel Drive, on Nov. 4, 2010.

Akira Jackson, a transgender woman, stabbed her boyfriend, Alan Gray, at his home on Santa Rita Drive. Jackson later pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced in August to four years in prison.

Anyone with any information on the incident is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (925) 313-2600.