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SUSPECT ARRESTED

Police identify victims in Chandler Intel killing

Posted 2/18/23

A suspect has been arrested after allegedly killing a co-worker at a  Chandler Intel plant, authorities said.

Chandler police said 50-year-old Derrick Lemond Simmons was booked into a …

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SUSPECT ARRESTED

Police identify victims in Chandler Intel killing

Posted

A suspect has been arrested after allegedly killing a co-worker at a  Chandler Intel plant, authorities said.

Chandler police said 50-year-old Derrick Lemond Simmons was booked into a Maricopa County jail Saturday, Feb. 18, on suspicion of first-degree murder and aggravated assault.

The victims have been identified as Dan Foster, 49, who died, and Jaron Williams, 27, who was injured, police said on Monday, Feb. 20. 

Both victims and the suspect were employed at Intel. 

Court documents state that one of the victims was found dead in the Intel Ocotillo Campus cafeteria with blunt-force trauma from a baseball bat along with a hatchet and knife.

Police said the other victim was taken to a hospital with injuries not considered life threatening.

Simmons was convicted in 2001 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to court paperwork, but details of that case weren't immediately available.

Police responded to reports of an assault at the Intel Ocotillo Campus around 6:15 a.m. Saturday.

They said Simmons was located in front of the building carrying two duffle bags.

According to court paperwork, witnesses told police that after the night shift employees left, Simmons approached a man at a table in the cafeteria and allegedly hit him multiple times on the head with a baseball bat for an unknown reason.

The other co-worker sitting at the same table was attacked when he stood up to confront Simmons, police said.

Linda Qian, a spokeswoman for Intel Arizona, said the “tragic incident at the Ocotillo campus” was being investigated by Chandler police and the company's security staff.