Kenneth Ray Johnson, Charles Anthony Mackbee, Arrested in Philip Victor Williamson Murder

​Police in Long Beach have announced two more arrests in the March 2011 murder of Philip Victor Williamson, whom police believe may have been carrying seven pounds of marijuana and $500,000 in cash when he was shot in an alley north of downtown. Kenneth Ray Johnson, 36, and Charles Anthony Mackbee, 42, were both arrested "without incident" at 10 a.m. last Thursday at their homes, according to a story that ran yesterday in the Long Beach Press Telegram.

From the beginning, once police discovered Williamson was hauling marijuana from growing operations in the Chico area, where he grew up, to Los Angeles County, where he was living, it's clear that robbery was viewed as a motive. In July 2011, police  announced the arrest of two different suspects, Rosemary Sayegh of Granada Hills and her husband Marcel Mackbee, (who is a cousin of Charles Mackbee), but murder charges were dropped against Sayegh last November.

The only evidence police have made public involved camera footage from a liquor store where Williamson made a purchase which police say captured a suspicious person driving a black SUV. Police claim that a receipt found in Williamson's pocket led them to the store where the found the footage, and that Marcel Mackbee was the man seen driving the SUV. Despite the obvious family connection between the two Mackbees, exactly how the two latest arrests fit into the story remains a mystery, so stay tuned!