Thanksgiving comes week after son shot in front of DC family’s home
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Shane Williams had a bright future ahead of him, his family said, beginning as a freshman at Bowie State University and caring for a four-month-old son.
But Shane, 18, was gunned down last Friday night right in front of his home in Southeast D.C. as his father watched in horror.
Shane’s parents said that the Thanksgiving holiday will never be the same.
“I really don’t feel as though I have anything to be thankful for right now,” said Sharon Williams, Shane’s mother. “I am torn apart that my son is not here to celebrate Thanksgiving. They took my only child that I had left in this world.”
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D.C. Police said that Shane was shot around 10:22 p.m. in the 4000 block of Wahler Ct. and were looking for two gunmen.
Theodore Williams II, Shane’s father, said his son had just exited a car with friends in front of the family home when one person emerged and stood in front of his son.
“The next thing you know, something go, pow, pow, pow, pow,” he said. “And another one comes over and shoots four more times.”
Theodore Williams said the two men came from the side of his home and later discovered they had parked their car in a back alleyway.
He said he had been sitting in the driver’s seat of the family car when the shooting began. He said he grabbed his son off the ground, put him in the back seat of the car and drove him to a nearby hospital, where he later died.
“They took my mini-me off this earth,” Theodore Williams said. In addressing the two assailants, he added, “You know what you did. I want you to look at me. You see the pain. I ain’t slept. I’ve lost 12 pounds since Friday.”
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Sharon Williams said this is the second significant loss of a child in three years. Their daughter passed away in 2020, leaving the couple with no children between them.
“It’s like my last baby,” she said with tears running down her face. “They took my only child that I had left in this world.”
The family is planning a candlelight vigil in front of the Williams’ home on Saturday at 6 p.m.
“He loved holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays,” Sharon Williams said. “And for him not to be here to celebrate that with us, it hurts.”
D.C. police are offering a $25,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the assailants.
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