Univ. of Alabama student found dead alongside her friend and the dog he was pet sitting after animal’s owner saw suspicious activity on her doorbell camera

Jazmine Alexis Bates, 22, was found dead at the home alongside her friend from work Jose Felix Alvarez-Duenas

Alvarez-Duenas and Bates were friends from work, as they were both employed at Buffalo Phil’s restaurant in Tuscaloosa

Police found their bodies on July 6 at a home in Brookwood, where Alvarez-Duenas had been pet-sitting his friend’s dog

The dog’s owner was out of town and had been unable to reach Alvarez-Duenas for some time, so she checked her home’s surveillance cameras remotely

Surveillance footage pointed investigators to a suspect, De’Kendrick Crawford

Accused of killing Bates, Alvarez-Duenas and the dog the latter was pet-sitting, Crawford, 24, has been charged with capital murder of two persons

The suspect already had an outstanding felony warrant for shooting into an occupied building in May 2026

On July 6, Univ. of Alabama senior Jazmine Alexis Bates, [photo], 22, was found dead alongside her friend from work, Jose Felix Alvarez-Duenas, at a home in Tuscaloosa where the latter was pet sitting

A college student, her male friend and the dog he was pet-sitting were all found shot to death on Monday, and the suspected killer has been arrested after a tense, hours-long standoff with police.
University of Alabama Student Jazmine Alexis Bates, 22, and Jose Felix Alvarez-Duenas, 31, were identified as the victims of the double murder.
Alvarez-Duenas, a single father-of-three and Bates were friends from work at Buffalo Phil’s restaurant in Tuscaloosa where both were employed.
Responding officers found their bodies on July 6 at a home in Brookwood, where Alvarez-Duenas had been pet-sitting his friend’s dog.
The dog’s owner who was out of town, unable to reach Alvarez-Duenas for some time, she checked her home’s surveillance cameras remotely and spotted unusual activity on the property. 

Felix Alvarez-Duenas, 31, [photo], was also found dead on July 6, at the Brookwood, Alabama, home where he was pet-sitting a friend’s dog

The footage showed a man acting suspiciously on her back porch during the early morning hours of that day, so she contacted her landlord, who then requested that Brookwood police conduct a welfare check at the house.
When officers arrived, they opened the front door and immediately found Alvarez-Duenas’s body.
Searching the rest of the home, cops discovered Bates’s body in a closet. The homeowner’s dog had also been shot dead.
Police examined the surveillance footage and identified the suspect, 24-year-old De’Kendrick Crawford, who already had an outstanding felony warrant for shooting into an occupied building in May 2026.
Investigators quickly obtained a separate capital murder warrant for Crawford.

De’Kendrick Crawford, [photo], 24, who is accused of killing Bates, Alvarez-Duenas and the dog the latter was pet-sitting. He has been charged with capital murder of two persons

Crawford was arrested about 10 hours after the victims’ bodies were found. Police located the suspected murderer shortly after discovering the bodies at a relative’s apartment.
The suspect resisted attempts to get him to exit the home, but officers eventually breached the building and located Crawford hiding in an attic crawlspace.
‘After four hours of tactical operations including drones, tear gas, tactical units – walls, doors being breached and attics being searched with K-9s, yeah, he gave up,’ Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Captain Jack Kennedy said at a press conference.
‘He gave up only because he cared about himself more than he cared about his victims, and he knew that the guys that we sent up in that attic to get him would defend themselves if he did anything,’ Kennedy added. 
The reason or motive for Crawford’s alleged murders and why the victims were targeted, is yet to be established.
He has been charged with capital murder of two or more persons and is being held in the Tuscaloosa County Jail without bond, according to the jail’s records. 

College student Jazmine Bates [left], and Felix Alvarez-Duenas [right], were friends from work at Buffalo Phil’s restaurant in Tuscaloosa where both were employed. Alvarez-Duenas was the sole caregiver and provider for his three children aged four, nine and ten

He has also been charged with firing a gun at an occupied building for his prior outstanding warrant.
In that alleged crime Crawford had been fired from a contract job at the University of Alabama campus is accused of shooting multiple times at an occupied office building as he drove away. 
Police said that Crawford will likely be hit with multiple other charges as the murder investigation develops.
The University of Alabama released a statement addressing the death of its student, Bates, that said: ‘We extend our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Jazmine Bates after this tragedy. UA staff have contacted her family to offer support.’
‘There are simply no words to express the pain our team is feeling. They were more than employees, they were family,’ Buffalo Phil’s restaurant where Bates and Alvarez-Duenas worked, said in a statement.
‘Their kindness, dedication and the joy they brought to our workplace will never be forgotten.’

Bates a senior from Chicago would have graduated from the University of Alabama in December

Bates a senior from Chicago would have graduated from the University of Alabama in December.
A GoFundMe page set up to help her family cover the cost of funeral expenses and transportation arrangements to bring the body to her home city, has raised $19,464 of the $28,000 target.
A GoFundMe was also set up to help Alvarez-Duenas’s family cover funeral costs and provide financial support for his four-year-old, nine-year-old and 10-year-old children, as he was their sole caregiver and provider. The crowd funding page has raised $18,179 raised of the $28,000 target.