On the morning of January 14, 2021, the quiet stretch around the 1000 block of 9th Street in Lafayette turned into a crime scene when gunfire ripped through the neighborhood and left Derrick “Duce” Peter Williams Jr., 25, a Black male, mortally wounded. Witnesses later told investigators the shooter fled on foot, disappearing into nearby streets before officers could arrive.
By the time police reached the area, Williams had already been rushed to a local hospital by someone who knew him. He had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen, and despite efforts to save him, he died from his injuries. The killing was treated as a homicide from the start, with detectives working to reconstruct what happened in the moments before the shots and how the gunman got close enough to strike and then slip away.
In the days that followed, investigators released a surveillance image of a person they believed could be connected to the shooting and asked the public to help put a name to the face. Police described the person they were looking for as wearing a blue-and-white or camouflage-patterned shirt, white jogger-style pants with a black stripe, a black beanie, and dark shoes. The search widened beyond 9th Street itself, with authorities urging anyone who had been traveling near Surrey, Ninth, Eighth, or Ransome Streets between about 9 a.m. and noon that day—especially anyone with dashcam footage or an unexpected detour—to come forward.
Public updates from that period indicated the suspect had not been identified, and no arrests or charges were announced in connection with the shooting in the reporting and police appeals available from those sources. The case, as it was presented to the public at the time, hinged on filling in the missing pieces—who waited in that corridor of streets, who saw a figure moving away afterward, and what the cameras captured that might finally turn an image into a lead strong enough to name a suspect and bring formal charges.
