Antinette Williams was 23 years old when she died on Tuesday, October 11, 2005, in Compton. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at Paulsen Avenue and Hatchway Street. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department case.
She was not killed alone. The German news magazine Der Spiegel, in a report on violence in Compton, wrote that a driver named Jasper Robertson, 33, and his companion, Antinette Williams, 23, were killed on West Hatchway Street. According to the magazine, Robertson's upper body was riddled with bullets, while the young woman was beaten to death with the butt of a rifle. The magazine suggested that the killer had apparently run out of ammunition, though that was its own reading of the scene. The report placed the attack in a single night that brought three killings at two locations in Compton, and it described Sheriff Lee Baca speaking about such crimes. The date the magazine gave differs slightly from the coroner's record.
Beyond that brief account, almost nothing about Antinette has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and her name is shared by other women whose names appear online, none of whom can be connected to her. She surely had family and friends who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record.
The account does not say whether she and Robertson were the intended targets, whether the attacker knew them, or what led to the shooting. It does not say whether there were witnesses or whether a suspect was ever identified.
Compton is a city in the south central part of Los Angeles County, between Los Angeles and Long Beach. It was once a largely white suburb, became a center of Black middle class life in the 1950s and 1960s, and today has a large Latino population as well. It is known worldwide through hip-hop and as the city where tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams learned to play. The city disbanded its own police department in 2000 and contracts with the Sheriff's Department, whose Compton Station patrols its streets. Hatchway Street is a residential street in the city.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. Compton had long struggled with gang violence, and a double killing in which one victim was shot and another beaten would have frightened neighbors, some of whom may have heard the gunfire.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Antinette Williams could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Paulsen Avenue and Hatchway Street in Compton in October 2005, or who knew Antinette or Jasper Robertson, may hold information that could help investigators. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
