On a Friday evening in the Dutchtown neighborhood of St. Louis, 23-year-old Craig Williams was shot and killed. The incident, which took place on March 26, 2021, stemmed from a prolonged and heated argument between Williams and his pregnant girlfriend outside their home on Hydraulic Avenue. The altercation drew the attention of several neighbors, one of whom would ultimately be responsible for Williams's death.
This neighbor, 63-year-old Dan Charles Rathman, inserted himself into the dispute, leading to a fatal escalation.
According to court documents and witness accounts, Rathman, who lived nearby, approached the couple with a 9mm handgun. He reportedly told Williams to leave multiple times. The situation intensified when Williams went to his own car and retrieved a semi-automatic pistol. Rathman claimed that he felt compelled to intervene because he saw Williams choking his girlfriend, a claim that the girlfriend and other witnesses later denied. Cell phone video captured part of the encounter, showing Rathman positioning himself and taking aim. As Williams stood up from his car, Rathman fired twice, fatally wounding him. Williams was pronounced dead at the scene.
In the weeks following the shooting, family and friends of Craig Williams called for the arrest of Dan Rathman, pointing to witness videos they believed implicated him. Initially, Rathman claimed self-defense, a narrative disputed by Williams's family and his girlfriend, who maintained that Williams was not a threat and never took his gun out of his car. About three weeks after the incident, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office charged Rathman with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. Warrants for his arrest were issued, and he was taken into custody. The case raised concerns among some community members about racial dynamics and police response, as the victim, Craig Williams, was a young Black man and the shooter, Dan Rathman, was a white man who was not immediately arrested.
