Alabama teen who fatally shot sheriff in head after being told to turn down music is the son of a deputy, say police
LOWNDES COUNTY, ALABAMA: A sheriff approached a truck on Saturday night as the music playing inside was too loud. But when he asked the 18-year-old driver to turn down the volume, he pointed a gun at the sheriff and shot him in the head, killing him instantly.
Details surrounding the fatal shooting of Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams Sr. emerged on Sunday. He was remembered by loved ones as "Big John," a no-nonsense law enforcement officer and former Marine.
Soon after the tragedy, authorities were shocked to find the suspect in the killing, identified as William Chase Johnson, was the son of a sheriff's deputy from Montgomery County.
Speaking to the Montgomery Advertiser, Charles Benson, a customer at the QV store in Hayneville, where the shooting took place, said he witnessed the entire incident.
“Right there at Pump 8,” Benson recalled to the outlet, pointing to the crime scene. “Big John comes up and asks the young man about the loud music, just like he has done hundreds of times before. Big John don’t take no foolishness."
“That's when he got shot. I don't understand it," he said. "The sheriff is gone over loud music? It just don't seem right.”
The suspect fled the scene immediately after the shooting, which took place around 8.15 pm. However, he returned to the same spot about four hours later with a firearm and was apprehended by authorities.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Johnson, who will appear Monday morning in Lowndes County District Court to face murder charges, is the son of one of its deputies.
While an investigation is underway, it is yet to be revealed whether Williams was on duty and in uniform at the time of the shooting, and if he was driving his patrol car or an unmarked vehicle.
A crowd of people from around Lowndes County came together on Sunday to pay tribute to the beloved Sheriff Williams, who was first elected to the post in 2010.
Alicia Davis, a minister at Greater Mount Zion AME Church in Hayneville, told AL.com how Big John "loved everybody."
“When he saw you, he spoke to you. It doesn’t matter what color with him. He loved everybody. He cared for everybody," she recalled. "Young people, he would come pull them aside, talk to them. And he saved a lot of people.”