Bend man jailed in fatal shooting of houseguest
A 32-year-old Bend man was arrested Monday evening on a murder charge, accused of fatally shooting a 31-year-old man visiting his southeast Bend home early Monday morning.
Luke Anton Wirkkala, 32, was arrested at 6:30 p.m. and taken to the Deschutes County Jail, where he was held without bail on a murder charge in the shooting death of David Andrew Ryder, 31, inside Wirkkala’s home, said police Lt. Ben Gregory.
Wirkkala’s girlfriend and two children were asleep in his home at 20753 Will Scarlet Ln. at the time of the shooting, Gregory said.
The two men “are known to one another,” Gregory said in a news release, not divulging further details but adding that an autopsy is scheduled Tuesday.
Gregory said he could not comment on whether drugs or alcohol were involved, whether there had been an argument or what kind of gun was used, referring questions to the district attorney’s office.
He said police would be back at the home Tuesday to further process the crime scene, while the autopsy will be conducted at the state Medical Examiner’s Office near Portland.
Earlier in the day, police were calling the death of Ryder, a software engineer, a “suspicious death.”
The Oregon State Police Crime Lab assisted Bend police investigating Ryder’s death at the home in the Nottingham Square neighborhood of southeast Bend, Gregory said earlier in the day.
Police were dispatched around 2:30 a.m. to the home on a report someone had been shot in the home, Gregory said. They arrived to find Ryder dead with an apparent gunshot wound.
“Ryder does not live at the residence,” Gregory said in an initial news release. “However, he was an invited guest.”
The home sits on the cul de sac at the end of a short road that was blocked off by crime-scene tape after sunrise Monday morning, with a police car parked outside.
Two women who live nearby told NewsChannel 21 that detectives had come by, asking if they knew the couple who lived at the home, and they did not. They were told someone was dead in the home.
The news shocked and stunned Ryder’s colleagues at G5, a search and digital marketing firm in Bend where he began working as a senior software engineer last April, according to company officials.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with David’s family and friends,” said Dan Hobin, G5 CEO, in a statement issued late Monday. “David’s vast experience as a senior software engineer, his professionalism and his humor had a profound impact on our organization. David was a valued member of the G5 Engineering team and will be dearly missed.”
G5 HR Director Keeli Hyde said many at the firm were “pretty shaken up” by the news, with many leaving early for the day.
