In the early moments of a Thursday morning, the life of Derrick Williams, a 52-year-old Black male, was tragically cut short on a sidewalk in his own neighborhood. Just after midnight on October 27, 2016, Philadelphia Police officers were called to the 6500 block of North 17th Street in the West Oak Lane section of the city. There, they discovered Williams unresponsive, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
Williams had reportedly just returned home after attending the season opener
for the 76ers basketball team. The promising start to the evening ended in a violent encounter that police have described as an execution-style killing. Emergency responders rushed him to Albert Einstein Medical Center, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he was pronounced dead that morning.
The investigation into the death of Derrick Williams remains open, and it is considered an unsolved murder. Law enforcement officials have not publicly identified any suspects or made any arrests in connection with the shooting. The Philadelphia Police Department has urged anyone with information regarding the case to come forward, hoping that a tip from the community might provide the breakthrough needed to bring those responsible to justice. Investigators were hopeful that surveillance cameras from nearby homes might yield clues to help them identify the perpetrator or perpetrators.
