Philadelphia Daily News
PHILADELPHIA — Police Officer Rudolph Gary Jr. was fired and charged with murder yesterday for allegedly shooting to death, while he was off duty, the brother of his estranged wife Sunday night.
Her brother might be alive today, said Shanae Williams, Gary’s estranged wife, if police had returned her calls after Gary applied to become a cop, or if they had suspended him after a domestic incident in October.
"[Gary] told me before one time, he was going to make my life miserable,” she said.
“He really succeeded.”
The fatal shooting of Howard Williams, 22, happened about 6:30 p.m. on a crowded South Philly block where at least 50 people were engaged in “an all-out water fight” with squirt guns, hoses and balloons, Shanae Williams said.
Gary, 26, and his girlfriend had driven to Hoffman Street near 19th to pick up the 8-year-old son he and Shanae Williams share custody of, she said.
Their car windows were down and Gary’s girlfriend became enraged when Williams’ niece sprayed her with water, Williams said.
An argument ensued between the women and then between Gary and Howard Williams, according to witnesses.
Gary then went to his car, grabbed a handgun and shot Howard Williams in the neck at point-blank range, Shanae Williams said.
Howard Williams’ brother, Antwion “Demetrius” Strickland, 19, said he went to run to his fallen brother’s side, but Gary stood over Williams’ convulsing body and fired four more shots into his chest.
“When I seen the blood just squirting up in the air, I knew it was serious” Strickland said.
Shanae Williams said Gary then grabbed their son, threw him in the car, locked the doors and put a gun in her face before he sped away.
“My son seen the whole thing,” she said.
Two other people were injured by Gary’s gunfire; they were in stable condition, police said.
A police source said that Gary drove to 17th District headquarters, at 20th and Federal streets, and told a supervisor what had happened. The supervisor immediately took Gary to meet with Internal Affairs investigators, the source said.
Williams said she picked her son up at Police Headquarters Sunday night after the family went to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where her brother eventually died.
Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said the incident was “tragic for the family that lost a loved one, and certainly the officer, whose entire career and now life, for that matter, are forever changed.”
Swift action needed to be taken against Gary, Ramsey said, because of the lethal way the young, off-duty cop reacted to a minor dispute.
Philadelphia, however, has long been known for investigations into shootings involving on- and off-duty cops that drag for months and years.
“There’s no reason to send this type of case to a grand jury,” District Attorney Seth Williams said last night. “We treated this like we would have any case.
“It wasn’t like he was trying to confront a fleeing felon,” he noted. “There was a water-gun fight. People were upset. He shot an unarmed man.”
The D.A. said he didn’t know if Gary, who was being held without bail, used his police-issued Glock pistol in the shooting.
It was unclear last night if Gary, who had worked in the 14th District in Northwest Philadelphia, had a lawyer.
Williams said this is not the first time Gary has brandished a gun at her brother or at a crowd.
She said that in October, she and Gary had an argument that turned physical, and someone called her brother to help out.
“As soon as he seen my brother’s face, he said, ‘Back the f up’ and he pulled his badge,” Williams said. “Then he just pulled his gun out and started aiming it at everybody outside.”
She said police responded and Gary still had his gun drawn when they arrived. He fell to his knees and identified himself as a cop, she said.
Diane Williams, Shanae and Howard’s mother, said that was the moment when Gary should have been kicked off the force.
“They knew from that police report what he had done. Why was he still allowed to be a cop? Why?” she asked.
A police official last night noted that Gary had been investigated once before for a domestic dispute that involved him and his girlfriend’s former paramour.
The incident was investigated by Internal Affairs, but did not result in any charges or disciplinary action against Gary.
The district attorney said his office was looking into a reported domestic dispute, as well as claims that Gary and his ex-wife had protection-from-abuse orders against each other.
Shanae Williams said that when Gary was going through the application process to be a cop, police called her and left a message that they wanted to conduct a personality interview with her about Gary.
She said she returned their calls and left messages but wasn’t able to reach anyone.
“I wanted to let them know what kind of person they were letting into their force,” she said. “I was actually scared for him to have this much authority.”
Williams said she has known Gary since 1999 and they were married in 2002.
She said they became estranged in 2005 and that he has been harassing her over the last few years.
Williams said Gary, a former Marine, has been a cop for less than a year.
Diane Williams remembered her son yesterday as an outgoing “ladies man” who loved children, although he had none of his own.
As for Shanae Williams, she still can’t get over the utter senselessness of what happened.
“My brother died - with five bullets in his body - over a little bit of water,” she said.
Copyright 2010 Philadelphia Daily News