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From: Jade
Date: April 13, 2006
Time: 12:48:27 PM
Man gunned down at Reseda apartment Williams was mentor to Valley kids BY DANA BARTHOLOMEW, Staff Writer RESEDA - He helped neighbors, guided at-risk teens and coached two youth football and basketball teams to San Fernando Valley championships. So family and friends were stunned to learn Gary Gault Williams was shot to death this week outside his Reseda apartment. The 38-year-old coach hadn't an enemy in the world, they said. Except one, seen before noon Tuesday by a neighbor through an apartment-door peephole, according to the apartment manager, who didn't want to be identified. "What are you going to do, shoot me now?" Williams asked his assailant after a brief scuffle by the second-story elevator, the neighbor told the manager. They were Williams' last words. Three shots later, according to the witness, the mentor for hundreds of Valley kids stumbled down an apartment stairway and collapsed in the lobby below. Police found him dead at the scene with several gunshot wounds to his upper body. The suspect was described by witnesses as a 5-foot-10 black man, 28 to 30 years old, weighing between 160 and 170 pounds, with a shaved head and wearing a blue shirt. He was last seen running from the locked garden apartments at 6210 Reseda Blvd. The motive for the killing is unknown, police said. No suspects have been identified. "We're accepting anybody's help right now. We don't have anything to go on," said Los Angeles police Detective Brad Roberts of the West Valley Homicide Unit. "It's a bit of a mystery right now." Williams, a personal trainer and artist, served as an assistant coach for the Reseda Buccaneers Pop Warner football team and the Recreation Center Jr. Coed All-Star Wildcats basketball team. For two years running, he led the Buccaneers to Valley championships. This year, his Wildcat All-Stars won the Valley regional championship. He drove boys to and from practices and games, coaches said. He sponsored kids out of his own pocket. He even went to other parts of Los Angeles to pick up at-risk kids who wanted to play on his teams. "All the kids wanted to be around him," said Michael Walton, head coach for the Buccaneers and Wildcats. "He prodded the kids in a good way. When kids were going down the wrong path, he would bring them into football, into basketball and track and try to keep them off the street." "He <http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/clear.gif> <http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/clear.gif> <http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/clear.gif> Advertisement <http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/clear.gif> <http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/std/clear.gif> went overboard for these kids," added Reseda Buccaneers President Saul Martinez. "He'd do anything for anybody. This is a big blow to the community, a big blow. There's no other guy like him." On Wednesday, family and friends gathered at a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles placed outside his apartment building. A girlfriend cried as she recited the 23rd Psalm. Neighbors talked of the gentle man who carried their groceries, greeted them in the hall and paid for personal needs. "When my husband had to go to the hospital and I didn't have the money for cab fare, he just gave me the money," said Norma Tate, 65, who lived down the hall. "He just said, `Here's the money."' Friends and family spoke of the handsome jokester with the pencil mustache and faint goatee, always a favorite with the ladies. On Wednesday, the graduate of Sequoia Middle School and Crenshaw High would have celebrated the birthday of his mom, Renee Hutchinson of Reseda. He is also survived by his father, Gary Williams of Los Angeles; four sisters, Sharrell Williams of Reseda, Raashaar Williams, Yoshiko Williams and Heather Hutchinson; and two nieces and three nephews he helped raise. "He just loved kids," said Sharrell Williams, 39, wiping away tears. "Always driving somewhere with kids, always had somebody's kids in his car. He raised my kids; he was their father. "There was never a bad word (said) about my brother. Not one. He was never in a gang. He was never in any trouble as a kid. Never had a police record, was never arrested. I would like anybody who saw this, anybody, to call the police station so that my brother's death won't go unavenged." Anyone with information can call the West Valley Homicide Unit at (818) 374-7721 or (877) LAWFULL.
