The State - News from June 8, 1986

A murder suspect wanted by the FBI in Berkeley escaped from police after studying his own photograph and telling a policeman he had never seen himself, a newspaper reported. Because the officer did not recognize the suspect when he confronted him, a nationwide manhunt for David Lee Williams, an Israeli soldier of fortune suspected of two murders in Virginia, was still underway, the San Francisco Chronicle said. FBI agents say Williams arrived in Berkeley in February and landed a job as house manager of Chabad House, a residence hall for Jewish students. The FBI tracked Williams to the house and on Tuesday, FBI agents and uniformed Berkeley police officers surrounded the house. A plainclothes Berkeley officer entering the house mistook Williams, who had begun growing a beard, for Chabad House Rabbi Yosef Langer, the newspaper said. In the dark hallway, Williams looked at the clean-shaven suspect in the photograph and cooly told the officer, “No I haven’t seen this guy.” After the officer conferred with FBI agents and agents rushed back into the house, Williams had fled out a back door.