Revisiting two murders at the nation’s largest man-made aquatic park  

This week I have two San Diego murders to update you on, both occurring in the Mission Bay area.

The first is the May 16, 2023 shooting at Campland on the Bay RV Resort, a popular RV and camping resort on the northwest side of Mission Bay. According to reports, 38-year-old Michael Callahan shot 49-year-old Ryan Abbott near the pool area after a verbal confrontation.

The second fatality occurred Oct. 2, 2024 at Fiesta Island, in the southwest part of Mission Bay, when Victor Bocaya, an off-duty officer with the San Diego Community College District Police Department, shot and killed Brian Maloney III after being stabbed multiple times by him.

Campland on the Bay Murder Update: Trial Set

Deputy District Attorney Jessica Sutterley has informed S-Reporter that motions will be heard on Feb. 6, 2025 and a trial, in front of Judge Lisa Rodriguez, will commence on February 18.

Here’s what we know:

Witnesses testified that around 10 p.m., Callahan and Abbott were in the resort’s hot tub chatting up some women when Callahan got angry, apparently due to feeling slighted or rejected by someone. That’s when he left and came back with his gun and shot Abbott, who died later in a hospital.

During a hearing on July 29, 2024, Miriam Romo, a janitor at Campland on the Bay RV Resort, testified that a man gave her a firearm after blurting out that he’d just shot someone. According to Romo’s testimony, Callahan said he acted in self-defense. Prosecutor Jessica Sutterley argued that it couldn’t be self-defense, given that the shooter was 40 feet away from the victim when he fired his semi-automatic Glock 30 three times, hitting Abbot once in the chest.

A gunshot residue test of Callahan’s hand was positive, and a blood/alcohol test indicated Calahan was intoxicated.

Sutterley said the blame lies unilaterally with Callahan, who started the confrontation and escalated it “into a deadly assault.”

For his part, Callahan pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail in the George Bailey Detention Facility. He was charged with a single count of first-degree murder with a firearm and if convicted could serve 25 years to life.

To be convicted of first-degree murder, the prosecution must prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Callahan acted with the intent to kill Abbott and with “malice aforethought,” meaning he acted with reckless disregard for human life.  The prosecution must also show that Callahan planned the murder prior to committing the act. This doesn’t mean he had to plan it far in advance of the murder, but that he had time to consider what he was doing and to stop himself from carrying out the murder.

Fiesta Island Murder Update

On October 2, 2024, at around 10:00 a.m., for reasons that are unclear, Brian Maloney III stabbed Victor Bocaya several times in his upper torso at the Fiesta Island parking lot. Bocaya, an off-duty police officer for the San Diego Community College District, pulled out his gun and fired one shot at the 41-year-old Maloney, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Bocaya was sent to a hospital to have his injuries treated and is now back home.

What led to the confrontation?

According to a San Diego Police Department statement, Officer Bocaya went to Fiesta Island to walk his dogs. After parking his vehicle, he was about to get his dogs out of his car when Maloney, some 75 feet away, began yelling at him and then approached him. 

Officer Bocaya showed his badge and identified himself as a police officer. As Officer Bocaya took out his cell phone to call the police, Maloney started stabbing him with a knife, at which point Bocaya shot and killed Maloney. 

Brian Maloney’s family is speaking out. His step-grandfather, Larry Melton, maintains that Maloney was a paranoid schizophrenic living out of his van. He said Maloney kept to himself and wasn’t aggressive unless he felt threatened, in which case he could be very aggressive. 

In an interview with CBS 8, Melton suggested this tragedy could have been avoided had Maloney not been discarded by the San Diego County mental health system. “Everybody just let him go. They wouldn’t treat him. They give him a few meds, you know, and he’s back on the street in two days.”

The San Diego Police Department and District Attorney’s office are treating the incident as an officer-involved shooting. An investigation into whether the shooting was a justified use of force on the part of San Diego Community College officer Bocaya will be conducted.