Timothy Price-Williams indicted for murder of Deputy Ray Hamilton; may face death penalty

A grand jury on Friday indicted Timothy Price-Williams for first-degree murder in the Christmas Eve killing of Okaloosa County Deputy Ray Hamilton.

Price-Williams was also indicted on three counts of attempted first-degree murder. He fired "several rounds" from a Hi-Point 9 mm carbine in the direction of officers Paxton Shelton, Ward Parsons and Brandon Simpkins, documents presented at the press conference said.

First Judicial Circuit State Attorney Ginger Bowden Madden announced the indictments at a press conference held alongside Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden at the Okaloosa County Courthouse Annex-Extension.

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Bowden Madden said her office was "pleased with the findings" of the grand jury but added that the indictment was just the beginning of the prosecution of the case against Price-Williams. She said in the next few weeks she will convene a panel to decide whether or not to pursue the death penalty in the case.

A conviction on the first-degree premeditated murder charge can result in only two sentences, that of life in prison without parole or death. The attempted murder charges also provide for a life sentence to be administered, though those sentences would be rendered moot upon conviction on the murder charge.

Hamilton, 34, had been with the Sheriff's Office for five years and a member of its elite Special Response team for a little over a year at the time of his death.

The SRT was called out to a townhouse on North Park Boulevard on the morning of Dec. 24 in response to a call about a possibly armed man having barricaded himself inside. A woman, the owner of the townhome, had notified authorities that Timothy Price-Williams — a man with a significant criminal record and several reported instances of violence — had battered her the night before.

Holding a warrant for a felony arrest on the charge of battery, a crisis negotiation team communicated with Price-Williams from both outside the home and via cell phone, an arrest report said. He told deputies they "had no right to show up at his residence" and warned officers "that the situation would 'turn into another Waco'" — a reference to a deadly 1993 standoff between a religious cult and federal agents.

After tear gas was utilized in an attempt to extract Price-Williams from the townhome, Price-Williams fired upon deputies and Hamilton was struck in the head. He died at a local hospital later that day.

At a press conference held shortly after the shooting, Okaloosa County Sheriff Eric Aden had said that many questions surrounding Price-Williams and the shooting incident itself would be better answered following a Sheriff's Office investigation and a criminal case being brought to the First Judicial Circuit's State Attorney's Office for prosecution.

Most of those questions remained unanswered Friday as Bowden Madden concluded her press conference after just eight minutes. She declined to divulge any new details of the investigation.

"The best way for my office to honor Deputy Ray Hamilton is to protect the integrity of this case and bring it to a successful outcome," she said.

Following the fatal shooting, Price-Williams was shot in the upper arm as he exited the townhome. Reports said he came out of the home acting in a manner that led deputies to fire upon him. His injuries were treated and he was released from medical care prior to being taken into custody and charged in connection with the murder of Hamilton.

Hamilton was the fifth Okaloosa County deputy to be killed in the line of duty since 2008. Price-Williams is the first suspect in any of the fatal shootings to be tried with the others having either died by suicide or at the hands of law enforcement.

No bond has been set in the Price-Williams case.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Grand jury indicts man accused of fatally shooting Okaloosa deputy