In the early morning hours of December 18, 1992, a dedicated 34-year-old White male, Officer Walter T. Williams, III, an eight-year veteran of the Waterbury Police Department, was on patrol in his marked cruiser. At approximately 4:00 a.m., he observed two men engaged in what he suspected was a hand-to-hand narcotics transaction at the intersection of Orange and Ward Streets.
Officer Williams stopped his vehicle to investigate and exited to detain the two individuals.
As he began to pat down the men, one of them, later identified as Richard Reynolds, deliberately bumped into the officer. This was a calculated move to determine if Officer Williams was wearing a protective vest. Upon confirming the presence of body armor, Reynolds, a cocaine dealer fearful of returning to prison, produced a. 380 caliber pistol. He then fired a single, fatal shot, striking Officer Williams behind his right ear. The two men immediately fled the scene on foot, leaving the officer lying in the street beside his patrol car.
A passerby discovered the gravely wounded officer and used the police radio in his cruiser to call for help. A massive investigation was launched, and within hours, detectives located and apprehended two suspects, 24-year-old Richard Reynolds and his associate, Anthony Crawford. They were found hiding in a second-floor apartment on Wood Street, where the murder weapon was also recovered. Reynolds confessed to the shooting, and Officer Williams succumbed to his injuries at St. Mary's Hospital at approximately 7:30 p.m. that evening, just eleven days before his third son was to be born.
Richard Reynolds was subsequently convicted for the murder of Officer Walter Williams. He was initially sentenced to death for his crime. However, following a 2015 decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court that abolished capital punishment in the state, his death sentence was overturned in 2017. Reynolds was then resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Officer Williams, a U.S. Air Force veteran, was survived by his wife and three sons.
