Roger Williams, a 42-year-old White / Caucasian male from the Newark/Bear area of Delaware, was killed on the night of December 12, 2019, while working as a ride-share driver in Wilmington. Reports from police and local news described him as a man who drove for ride-share services, including Lyft and Uber, and who was dispatched through Lyft when his final trip brought him to the Dorjul Apartments area near Simca Lane, off Lancaster Pike.
Around 10:00 p.m., New Castle County police were called to the apartment complex for a shooting. When officers and paramedics arrived, they found Williams suffering from a fatal gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The circumstances made the killing especially troubling because Williams appeared to have been working when he was shot. Friends and news reports said he would not normally have been in that area unless he had been driving for work. Police said they had not determined publicly whether the suspect had been a passenger in Williams' vehicle at the time of the shooting, but investigators quickly treated the case as a homicide and began looking for the person responsible. His death was described by New Castle County Police officials as the killing of an innocent person, and the investigation moved quickly with help from community members.
Within days, detectives identified 23-year-old Michael Toombs of Chester, Pennsylvania, as the suspect. New Castle County police announced that Toombs was wanted on charges of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Authorities warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous. Police said the investigation did not appear to be connected to other nearby incidents, but they continued asking for tips from the public as the search for Toombs expanded beyond Delaware.
The manhunt lasted about seven weeks. In late January 2020, members of the U.S. Marshals Service First State Fugitive Task Force, working with Chester police, took Toombs into custody in Chester, Pennsylvania. Authorities said he had been actively evading law enforcement and had been staying in multiple states after Williams was killed. After his arrest, he remained in Pennsylvania custody while awaiting extradition to Delaware to face trial.
The criminal case later ended without a conviction. In early March 2022, Michael Toombs was found not guilty on all charges connected to Roger Williams' killing. That meant that although Toombs had been identified, arrested, and prosecuted as the suspect, he was acquitted in court. No other publicly reported conviction was found in connection with Williams' death. His killing remains remembered as the fatal shooting of a ride-share driver who was working late at night when his life was taken outside a Wilmington apartment complex.
