The married couple who died Friday in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus were co-creators of the Bryn Walker fashion brand, according to property records, their relatives and several media outlets.
Gunshots rang out in the affluent hillside neighborhood shortly after 10:45 a.m. Friday, according to police. Berkeley and Oakland police rushed to the 400 block of Panoramic Way, which straddles the border between the two cities, and located a man and woman, both in their 60s, deceased outside a residence.
Oakland Police Department Deputy Chief Casey Johnson said the couple appeared to be married and a gun was found at the scene. Johnson said no one was in custody, but there was no threat to the public; Johnson would not confirm whether it was a murder-suicide, but he said investigators have not ruled it out.
Property records indicate the residence was owned by Bryan Walker and Michelle Min-Walker, a married couple who founded the Bryn Walker clothing brand. The couple created the Berkeley-based brand in the early 1990s.
“My clients are basically my inspiration: strong women, women who don’t look like lemmings,” Min-Walker said in a 2011 interview. “They don’t follow trends. They’re women who have full lives and really have a voice.”
In addition to several storefronts in the Bay Area, the brand is sold nationwide by retailers like Dillard’s. SFGATE’s attempts to contact Bryn Walker were unsuccessful at the time of publication.
Min-Walker’s brother told the California Post that his brother-in-law was deeply in debt and was so ill that the family was trying to institutionalize him. According to the family, Bryan Walker was supposed to be taken to a psychiatric facility for treatment the day the couple died.
Oakland property records show the couple owned a number of parcels in the neighborhood and, at one point in 2022, attempted to merge 15 parcels. The normally quiet street on Friday was filled with police cars and TV trucks while a helicopter circled overhead. Access to the 400 block of Panoramic, reached via steep, tight switchbacks, was blocked with police tape. Homes on the street cost millions and offer stunning views of the city and bay beyond.
Oakland police, who led the investigation, have not confirmed the identities of the people who died or fired the shots.
Gn usa
