The killing of Christopher Jaber and the arrest of David Swank Prince have jolted a city where homicides have been nearly unheard of in recent years.
LAFAYETTE, Calif. — Residents of a quiet Lafayette neighborhood were still processing a rare daytime homicide Tuesday after officers found 34-year-old Christopher Jaber dead inside a Westminster Place home and arrested 35-year-old David Swank Prince nearby on suspicion of murder.
The killing has landed with unusual force in Lafayette, a city that has gone years at a time without a homicide and is widely viewed as one of the Bay Area’s safest communities. Authorities have said little about the motive, the relationship between the men or the exact sequence inside the home, leaving neighbors with a mix of fear, grief and disbelief. What is clear is that police responded just before midday Saturday, found Jaber dead and quickly took Prince into custody as homicide detectives and crime lab investigators moved into the small residential street.
The first call came at 11:36 a.m. Saturday, when Lafayette police were dispatched to Westminster Place for a report of a suspicious subject. Officers arrived, entered the residence and found a man dead inside. By Saturday evening, authorities had identified the suspect as Prince, a Chico man who was booked on one count of murder at the Martinez Detention Facility. He is being held on $1 million bail. Jaber was later identified as the victim. Local reports said the suspect was detained while walking in the neighborhood not long after officers arrived, a quick arrest that suggested investigators believed they had found the person connected to the killing almost immediately. Even with that fast detention, officials have not explained how Prince came to be at the home or how long he had been in the area before police were called.
For neighbors, the violence was startling not only because of the death itself but because of where it happened. Lafayette is the kind of community where many residents know each other by sight and expect major crime stories to happen somewhere else. Christina Coleridge, who lives nearby, said she watched officers take the suspect into custody and later learned who had been killed. She described the experience as frightening and hard to absorb. Other reports portrayed Jaber as a familiar local man who rode his bike around the neighborhood and tried to be friendly with nearby families. One report said he lived in an accessory dwelling unit behind his parents’ home and that his parents were away when the killing happened. Those details have added a deeply personal dimension to a case that already felt out of place in a suburban cul-de-sac.
The rarity of the crime has become a major part of the public reaction. Local crime data cited in news coverage showed Lafayette recorded no homicides from 2013 through 2023, a stretch that helped define the city’s image as stable and safe. That background helps explain why the scene on Westminster Place drew such intense attention from residents, local media and law enforcement. Detectives from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office homicide unit and crime lab responded as the case shifted from a suspicious-person call to a murder investigation. At the same time, reports began surfacing about social media posts linked to the suspect’s name that appeared to mention Jaber and the same address weeks earlier. Authorities have not publicly verified those posts, but their emergence has widened the story from a neighborhood tragedy to a possible case involving prior threats, mental health concerns or deliberate targeting.
Prince now faces the first formal stage of the criminal process as prosecutors review evidence gathered by deputies and Lafayette police. The Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether to file charges and what level of murder allegation the facts support. Investigators also continue to gather physical evidence, digital records and witness statements from the block. Officials have not released a probable-cause narrative, autopsy findings, the precise weapon description or any account of whether there was an argument before the killing. They also have not said whether surveillance video from homes nearby captured the suspect approaching or leaving the residence. Those answers are likely to shape what happens next in court, including whether prosecutors frame the case as spontaneous violence or as a killing planned before Prince arrived on Westminster Place.
On Tuesday, the neighborhood remained caught between ordinary routine and the memory of patrol cars, detectives and crime scene work. Residents walked dogs, pulled out of driveways and spoke in low voices about a street that suddenly felt different. Coleridge said the suspect appeared calm when officers detained him, a detail that lingered because it clashed so sharply with the violence investigators were examining inside the home. Records cited in local reporting show Prince has a criminal history in multiple counties, mostly in Butte County, but officials have not said whether any past cases have direct relevance to the Lafayette investigation. For the people on Westminster Place, the bigger concern is simpler and more immediate: understanding how a fatal attack happened in the middle of the day on a block where many had never before imagined a homicide scene.
Authorities said the investigation remained active Tuesday, with Prince in custody and Jaber’s death under review by homicide investigators and prosecutors. The next key step is the district attorney’s charging decision, which will determine when the case first moves from the neighborhood street into open court.
Author note: Last updated March 24, 2026.