City worker who was shot is glad to be alive
“Everyone has to make a day-to-day boring effort to change this”
SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — Ernest “Elaw” Williams said he was trying to do the right thing by stepping in between two armed men fighting at Bilberry Park Community Center.
Now the Shreveport city worker is out of the hospital and thankful to be alive after being shot in one of his arms.
“It looked like I was dead, the way I fell back so fast.”
On Thursday, the SPAR employee visited the spot where he was shot the previous afternoon.
“I have a gunshot wound to my right arm, around the tricep area. It didn’t hit a bone. It didn’t hit the muscle.”
► RELATED: City worker shot in his arm outside Bilberry Park Recreation Center
Williams said he was trying to de-escalate a fight that started inside the building where he works part-time and continued in the parking lot.
“Some of the individuals started to leave the parking lot,” he explained. “One young man decided to go get his gun and walk toward the people he had the problem with. He was walking with the gun down by his side, and I’m thinking this guy is going to get killed because if you pull a gun the intent is to use it.”
Williams said that’s when the situation escalated.
“I’m not saying he should’ve shot anybody but he aggravated the situation by walking toward him with a gun.
“I stepped over to intercept him and try to stop him from getting shot and killed. And that’s when I caught a shot because whomever he was walking toward decided they weren’t going to wait until he’s shot and I think they were shooting to protect themselves.”
Williams’ niece said she’s grateful her uncle is okay.
“We’re a very tight-knit family,” Regina Williams said. “So hearing that somebody got injured and it’s potentially lethal, it was terrifying.”
As for gun violence and other crime, Elaw Williams said it takes a collective effort for things to improve.
“We got to continue to stay at these rec centers. We got to continue to talk to our youth. We got to continue to talk to the police and get churches involved.
“Everyone has to make a day-to-day boring effort to change this,” he continued. “There’s no one solution that’s going to stop this.”
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