Former Devil Wears Prada drummer Daniel Williams killed in San Diego plane crash
The former drummer from the metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada was killed after a private airplane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood on Thursday morning, his father told TMZ.
The band, which parted ways with the musician in 2016, seemingly confirmed Williams' death in an Instagram post featuring several photos of him. "No words. We owe you everything," the caption said. "Love you forever."
The Associated Press identified the plane's pilot and owner as music agent Dave Shapiro. A spokesperson for Sound Talent Group, the agency that Shapiro co-founded, confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that the agent and two other STG employees were killed in the crash.
"We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends," the STG spokesperson said. "Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by today's tragedy. Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time."
Shortly before the crash, Williams shared three posts on his Instagram story confirming that he was flying with Shapiro. The first post read, "Flying back with @davevelocity," which is Shaprio's handle on the platform. The second post showed an image of the cockpit and featured a paraphrase of a quote from Captain Phillips: "Hey. Hey…you…look at me…I'm the (co)pilot now." The third and final post seemed to show Williams in the copilot's seat, with the caption, "Here we gooooo."
Williams' father, Larry, told TMZ that his son did not have his pilot's license and suggested that the posts were merely jokes.
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for The Devil Wears Prada for more information.
Williams was one of the founding members of The Devil Wears Prada when it formed in Dayton, Ohio, in 2005. He contributed drums on the group's first five studio albums: Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord, Plagues, With Roots Above and Branches Below, Dead Throne, and 8:18.
The drummer departed the band in 2016, and worked as a software engineer for GoPro for eight years. Williams announced that he'd accepted a new job at Apple less than two weeks before the crash.The San Diego Police Department said in a press release that six people were on board the plane when it crashed into a house on the 3100 block of Salmon Road in the Tierrasanta neighborhood around 3:45 a.m. local time. Authorities confirmed that at least two people died in the crash, but are still determining the exact number of fatalities. Eight people were injured in the incident, but none of those injured were on board the plane.
The National Transportation Safety Bureau is investigating the crash.
AP reported that Shapiro's plane crashed into Navy-owned housing in a neighborhood near San Diego's Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. Local police reported that two were confirmed to have died from the incident and at least eight were injured, with around 10 buildings sustaining damage and 100 residents evacuating from the area.
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