In the summer of 2020, a gathering of young people in a parking lot on Curtiss Drive in South Bend, Indiana, took a tragic turn, ending the life of 17-year-old Allen Williams. The male teenager, who was Black, was fatally shot in the chest during the incident on June 13, 2020. The events leading up to the shooting began with an argument between a woman named Kristy Lynn Hawkins and another woman at the party.
Following the verbal altercation, Hawkins went to her vehicle and retrieved a
handgun. Witnesses reported that she then fired the weapon multiple times. One of the bullets struck Allen Williams. After the shooting, the scene was chaotic, with a large crowd of 50 to 70 youths gathered in the area. Police who arrived on the scene had to use a chemical irritant to disperse the crowd in order to reach the victim. Williams was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.
In the days following the shooting, investigators were able to identify Kristy Hawkins as the suspect through social media and witness testimony. She was taken into custody four days after the incident. During questioning, Hawkins provided several different accounts of what happened. She claimed that multiple people were firing guns, a statement that was contradicted by witness accounts and audio evidence from the scene. She also alleged that after Williams was shot, she thought he was having a seizure and attempted to render aid by cradling his head before leaving the scene when others told her to go. However, witnesses stated that after shooting Williams, Hawkins calmly got into her vehicle and drove away.
Kristy Hawkins, who was 38 years old at the time of her trial, was found guilty of murder by a jury after a three-day trial in March 2022. The jury also found that she had used a firearm in the commission of the offense. In May 2022, Hawkins, then 40, was sentenced for the murder of Allen Williams. She received a 45-year prison sentence for the murder charge, with an additional seven years for the firearm enhancement, resulting in a total sentence of 52 years in prison.
