Donald Lee Williams, a 51-year-old Black/African American male from New Kensington, Pennsylvania, was killed on the night of December 15, 2015, after a neighborhood fight in Arnold spiraled into gunfire. Williams lived on Taylor Avenue in New Kensington, not far from where the confrontation unfolded along the 1400 block of Taylor Avenue in Arnold. What began as a dispute involving teenage girls from two families grew into a street fight involving roughly 15 to 20 people. By the end of it, Williams had been shot once in the torso.
The confrontation reportedly started between daughters of the Williams and Reed families. As the argument escalated, adults became involved, and Williams ended up wrestling on the ground with another man, identified in court reporting as a member of Reed’s family. Witness accounts described the fight as chaotic, with people gathered in the street and police later struggling to get cooperation from those who had been present. In the immediate aftermath, investigators searched the area for evidence, including a shell casing, but the weapon was not recovered.
Police soon focused on Erik Lamont Reed Jr., then 18 years old and living in Arnold. Reed was accused of walking over during the fight and shooting Williams while Williams was on the ground. According to testimony from Williams’ widow, Rosella Williams, she had seen Reed with a handgun in his pants pocket shortly before the shooting. She also testified that she saw her husband wrestling on the ground when Reed approached, knelt down, and a shot was fired, though she did not see the gun in Reed’s hand at the exact moment of the shot.
Reed turned himself in to Arnold police on December 17, 2015, two days after the shooting. Police said he came to the station with family members, was arrested, and was transferred to the New Kensington police lockup. He was later held for court after a preliminary hearing in January 2016. At that hearing, prosecutors introduced evidence from forensic pathologist Cyril H. Wecht, who performed Williams’ autopsy and classified the death as a homicide.
Williams’ obituary described him as the owner and operator of Donelle’s Restaurant in New Kensington, a man who loved cooking, spending time with his children and dogs, playing Xbox 360, and most of all being a father. He was survived by his wife, Rosella Jean Bentz Williams, and several daughters and siblings. At Reed’s later sentencing, Rosella Williams described her husband as a role model to their family and to youth in New Kensington, and spoke about the life she lost after nearly three decades of marriage.
In August 2017, a Westmoreland County jury convicted Erik Lamont Reed Jr., then 20, of first-degree murder and carrying a firearm without a license. Prosecutors argued that Reed intentionally shot Williams during the fight, while the defense tried to frame the killing as the result of a sudden, violent struggle rather than a premeditated act. The judge rejected the defense’s post-trial challenge, noting that premeditation could be formed in a matter of seconds and that the evidence supported the jury’s finding that Reed formed an intent to kill during the confrontation.
On November 9, 2017, Reed was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder. His conviction and sentence were later affirmed on appeal by the Pennsylvania Superior Court in December 2018. Reed also pursued post-conviction relief afterward, but online court reporting indicates that effort was rejected as well.
