East Bay man accused of trying to poison engineering colleague, two others

BERKELEY — A Lafayette man working at an engineering and research company has been charged with poisoning one of his co-workers and two others, authorities said.

David Xu, 34, is facing three felony charges, including attempted murder resulting in great bodily injury, and is alleged to have committed his crimes beginning in October 2017. Police arrested him March 28 at his Lafayette home.

According to court documents, Xu put cadmium in the victim’s food and water on many occasions. Cadmium is a toxic metal and can cause toxicity to the organ system, cancer and/or death.

Xu and the female victim both worked as engineers at Berkeley Engineering and Research, Inc., at 808 Gilman St. The woman told authorities that while there, she noted a strange taste or smell from her water and food that she left unattended in her office, according to court documents.

After eating the food and drinking the water, the woman said she suffered immediate health issues and on at least one occasion required emergency care at a hospital.

She later put a surveillance camera in her office and twice found video evidence of Xu adding a substance to her water bottle, authorities said. The first incident happened on Feb. 11, 2019, and the second occurred on March 4.

Authorities also allege that Xu poisoned two of the woman’s relatives. Those two told authorities that they drank water from the woman’s water bottle on separate occasions in November and December of 2018. Both of them became sick immediately, authorities said.

Samples of that water revealed a toxic amount of cadmium, authorities said. Doctors took blood samples from all three, and all of them had elevated levels of the poison, authorities said.

Xu is being held without bail at the Berkeley City Jail, according to court records.