Police Make Arrest In Connection With Man's North Austin Homicide

NORTH AUSTIN, TX — Police arrested the roommate of a man who was recently found dead in his home in what was later ruled to have been a homicide, officials said Tuesday.

At around 12:45 p.m. on Aug. 31, police said, officer responded to a call asking for them to check on the well-being of Charles Edward Peterson III, 59, along the 7500 block of Berkman Dr. Upon entering the home, they found the man dead.

Immediately, the death was viewed as suspicious, police said. Those suspicions were confirmed after an autopsy when the medical examiner ruled the cause of death as homicide.

Detectives subsequently arrested Peterson's roommate, Dijon Reid, 27, as a person of interest. In an earlier advisory asking for help from the public in locating him, Reid was described as standing six feet tall and weighing about 200 pounds. Police noted in the earlier advisory that Reid is believed to frequent the Manor Road-Rogge Lane and Cameron Road areas, police said.

Reid has not been named a suspect in the death, but was arrested Tuesday afternoon by Lone Star Fugitive Task Force members on a charge related with failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements, a state felony bond punishable with a $25,000 fine.

In a check of the sex offender registry maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Reid is categorized in the "moderate" risk level, and undergoes an annual verification of his whereabouts with law enforcement officials. Although details as to what led him to become a sex offender are not detailed on the website, his victim is listed as a woman who was 20 years old at the time of the 2013 case.

>>> Photos provided by Austin Police Department