A R Williams (1968 - 1992)

By Avis Thomas-Lester and Santiago O'DonnellOctober 8, 1992 A man who was shot more than 20 times Tuesday afternoon in LeDroit Park was a paid informer for the D.C. police department who was trying to set up a meeting between undercover police officers and a suspected drug dealer when he was slain, sources said. Arvell Ricardo Williams, 24, was a "special employee" of the department who "had worked on a lot of operations" with narcotics officials, said a law enforcement source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A special employee is an informer who is regularly paid amounts from $10 to $500 to help police set up undercover drug operations, several sources familiar with such operations said. The employee is not on the police department's active payroll and does not receive benefits. Williams was shot about 5 p.m. as he sat in a white sedan parked in the 1800 block of Second Street NW. Police believe Williams was shot after being identified as a police informer, but they are unsure how the leak occurred. According to police sources, Williams had gone to an address in the block to meet a representative for a suspected drug dealer who has been under investigation by 3rd District detectives and the department's Narcotics and Special Investigations Division. Williams went into one of the town houses that line the block, the sources said, then walked outside and got into the passenger side of the white sedan that was parked on Second Street. The car was not a police vehicle and was not the car Williams used to drive there. It could not be determined if anyone else was in the car before the shooting, but sources said Williams was alone when he was shot. Witnesses said two gunmen walked up to the car. One fired a semiautomatic weapon, striking Williams, who slumped over. Then both men opened fire, shooting as many as 25 rounds before running away through an alley off Second Street that runs parallel to Rhode Island Avenue. A man who works in the block said he ran up to the car and found Williams still breathing, but bleeding profusely from several wounds in the upper body. Williams was taken by ambulance to Howard University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:37 p.m. A statement released yesterday by the department's public information office made no mention of Williams's status as an informer. The statement said "no motive or suspects have been determined at this time and the case is currently under investigation." Police department officials declined to discuss Williams's shooting yesterday. Several expressed anger that he had been identified as an informer in news reports. "This matter is very sensitive and very confidential," said Assistant Police Chief Rodwell Catoe, who oversees investigative services. "We'd never discuss what resources we have available for this type of operation." Williams was not accompanied by officers because he had been given no money and was only setting up a meeting, not trying to make a purchase or a sale, the law enforcement source said. The source said "it looked like procedure was followed" by officers involved in the case. However, sources said the department's Internal Affairs Division is investigating. Police officials declined to say how many special employees are used by the department or how much money is allocated to pay them. But a spokesman for D.C. Council member Wilhelmina J. Rolark (D-Ward 8), who heads the Judiciary Committee in charge of overseeing the police budget, said the department's special employees are paid out of a $500,000 police chief's confidential fund. The law enforcement source said that for security reasons, informers such as Williams are "known only to the officer who brings them in." Police say informers know the inherent risks of their work. "They do it to keep out of jail," one officer said. "They usually don't stay around very long because it's a high-risk business." Court records show that from September 1986 to November 1988, Williams was charged 13 times with felony drug offenses, but all but three charges were dismissed or not prosecuted. Meanwhile yesterday, relatives of Williams said they feared for their lives. A relative of the slain man said Williams worked as an orderly in a hospital. She said his family had not been contacted by police and heard about the shooting from a woman acquaintance of his who apparently was in the area when the shooting occurred. Williams was one of two people killed Tuesday in the District. The second slaying victim was identified yesterday as Ucal St. Abubin.