On a winter afternoon in Boston, a terrible event shattered the day. William Davis, a 20-year-old Black/African American male, was on Dudley Street in Roxbury on December 17, 2014, when his life was cut short. At approximately 1:38 P.M., near the intersection of West Cottage Street, shots rang out. William was struck by the gunfire and rushed to Boston Medical Center, but tragically, he was pronounced dead.
The broad-daylight shooting shocked the community and set off an immediate police investigation into the brazen violence that had claimed a young life.
Witnesses at the scene provided a description of the shooter to the police. They described a dark-skinned Black man with braids, wearing a red or partially red jacket and a hat. This description was bolstered by video footage from a nearby business that captured a man in a red jacket running towards William while drawing a gun from his pocket. Despite these initial leads, the case was not solved quickly, and for a time, it seemed as though justice for William Davis might remain elusive. The Boston Police Department continued to seek information from the public to help move the investigation forward.
Years after the fatal shooting, the investigation led to a significant breakthrough. In 2019, a Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Amir Richardson, then 27, of first-degree murder for the death of William Davis. The conviction carried an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case also saw two other men face charges. In 2017, Markeese Skinner pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. A third man, Paul Francis, was also charged as an accessory after the fact but was acquitted by a jury in 2018. The conviction of the primary suspect finally brought a measure of resolution to the case that began on that cold December afternoon.
