Lawyer Ben Crump demands ‘full justice’ from Wake DA in Raleigh police tasing death

Darryl “Tyree” Williams, a Black man who died after being tased by Raleigh police officers, is dead because of policies that arbitrarily targeted him, said Ben Crump, the lawyer representing the man’s family.

The nationally known civil rights and personal injury attorney has used his national platform to call for accountability in the case and in the Raleigh Police Department.

At a news conference Friday, Crump called on Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman to find the six involved officers criminally liable for Williams’ death.

Williams, 32, was tased three times after midnight on Jan. 17 by officers who struggled to arrest him for allegedly possessing drugs. Before being tased in the altercation a third and final time, Williams told officers he had heart problems, according to body-worn cameras from police. Williams died shortly after being arrested.

“We have the tragic death of Darryl ‘Tyree’ Williams because they gave a license to the Raleigh police officers to go out and just brutalize people in the Black community under this ‘proactive policing,’” Crump said Friday at Mount Peace Baptist Church.

Crump was joined by attorney Ken Abbarno and members of Raleigh legal defense group Emancipate NC.

Sonya Williams, Darryl’s mother, stood silently next to the attorneys and supporters who held up signs that included the message “Proactive patrol = community harassment.” Images of her son were projected on a screen behind her.

“This was my son... there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think how we was violently and wrongfully taken away from me,” Sonya Williams said.

Officers encountered Williams parked in his car outside of several businesses while conducting “proactive patrols” of the area, Police Chief Estella Patterson said previously.

Crump first publicly called for the officers’ firing in February as well as manslaughter charges against them, The News & Observer reported previously.

“We know and we’ve known this for months that Darryl ... was relentlessly fighting for his life in a fight that he did not start,” said Abborno.

The investigation is going on “at a relatively slow pace,” he said.

“For full justice, we want to know what happened,” he said.

Crump and Emancipate NC attorney Dawn Blagrove met with Freeman earlier Friday to discuss an update on the State Bureau of Investigation’s findings on the case. Those findings will be released to the District Attorney’s office so she can determine whether the officers acted lawfully.

Freeman told The N&O on Friday that she expects the investigation process to conclude in about 90 days. She is currently reviewing the SBI’s report and has requested a follow-up investigation, Freeman said in an email.

She also is awaiting a final autopsy report from Office of the Medical Examiner, which usually experiences a backlog of autopsies, she said.

Pressure placed on DA

Crump likened the tasing death to that of other high-profile cases of police brutality that his law firm has worked on, including the 2020 deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.

Most recently, Crump said, Williams’ death is reminiscent of the death of Tyre Nichols, who was fatally beaten by officers of the special “Scorpion” police unit in Memphis, Tennessee.

Blagrove denounced the police officers involved in Williams’ case as part of a “terror unit” and said their interaction with Williams the night of his death was illegal.

“District Attorney Freeman says that it is her job to follow the law, and we agree,” Blagrove said.

Crump and Emancipate NC are calling for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to conduct an investigation of the Raleigh Police Department for various incidents involving the use of force against Black residents.

“There’s this great willingness, political expediency to say ‘That’s yesterday’s news,’” said Crump. “We won’t let them sweep it under the rug.”

He referenced an investigative news story about a civil rights lawsuit against the Raleigh Police Department published last month in Rolling Stone.

The story investigates the case of Black residents who sued the city after they were wrongfully accused and raided for bogus drug charges. The case resulted in the firing and a felony indictments of a former Raleigh police detective, the N&O reported previously.

In Williams’ case, Blagrove said they could consider a civil lawsuit against Raleigh police if Freeman rules that the involved officers acted lawfully.

”(The civil suit) is not enough to satisfy the harm that was caused,” she said. “But the criminal prosecution is about the people of North Carolina it is about bringing justice to entire communities.”

The death of Darryl ‘Tyree’ Williams

According to body cam footage and police reports, two officers approached Williams on Jan. 17 around 1:55 a.m. while conducting “proactive patrols” of businesses on Rock Quarry Road.

Officers were outside Supreme Sweepstakes where Williams was in a parked car. Shortly after approaching him, they tried to arrest him after finding a folded dollar bill in his pocket with a white powder on it that looked like cocaine, according to a report police released after the incident.

Williams pulled away from officers’ grasps before Officer C.D. Robinson first tased him, according to the report and video footage.

After being tased the first time, Williams managed to get back up and ran. He tripped and fell over, then struggled with officers.

In 50 seconds, Williams was tased twice more: Officer J.T. Thomas tased him in the side of his body, and Robinson then tased him again, this time in the back.

The drive-stun mode of the taser was used twice. The mode sets the taser to give a more powerful shock when pressed against the body.

Officers arrested Williams around 2 a.m., but he quickly stopped breathing.

Officers performed CPR until an ambulance arrived, the report stated. He was pronounced dead at 3:01 a.m. at a local hospital.

Crump’s legal team said that they learned of medical evidence of Williams’ heart condition during discussions with the Wake County District Attorney.

Williams’ birthday is coming up on May 26, a day that will be difficult for her, his mother, Sonya, said.

“I just want to seek justice,” she said.