Suspect is held in fireworks case
Fugitive also sought in 2003 shootings
October 23, 2004
BY BEN SCHMITT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Detroit police arrested one of Michigan's most-wanted fugitives Friday and are questioning him about the June 23 fireworks shootings at Hart Plaza.
Acting on an anonymous tip, officers arrested Gary Williams, 24, of Detroit around noon in a second-story apartment at Pickford and Lahser in northwest Detroit.
Williams was wanted on six counts of assault with intent to murder in connection with the July 6, 2003, shooting of six people in the parking lot of Watts Club Mozambique. All the victims survived.
Williams, who may be arraigned on the Watts shootings today, has been on the Detroit police most-violent-persons list.
On the night after the fireworks shootings, Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings announced that Williams was wanted for questioning. Nine people were shot; one man died about six weeks later. Another suspect, 32-year-old Detroiter Daron Caldwell, was arrested.
On Oct. 4, prosecutors dropped all charges against Caldwell after DNA tests failed to link him to items found at the crime scene. Many witnesses also said Caldwell was not the shooter.
Tipsters told police in June that Williams accompanied Caldwell to the fireworks. But Caldwell has said that he doesn't know Williams.
Caldwell's attorney Marlon Blake Evans, who is preparing to sue the city, said again Friday that his client maintains he and Williams are not acquainted.
When police arrived Friday, Williams tried to jump out of a second-story window. An officer used a stun gun to subdue him, police said.
Williams, scraped, was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital before being taken to police headquarters.
"We want to question him," police spokesman James Tate said Friday. "We had a tip called in June that named him as possibly being involved in the fireworks shootings. We have to investigate it."
As for the 2003 club shooting, Tate said, a female acquaintance of Williams has named him as the gunman. Police said shots were fired in a crowd of about 200 people during a 3 a.m. fight between two men outside the male strip club in the 8000 block of Fenkell.
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