Ricky Williams: Did police arrest the killer, or just someone involved in the fight?

Ricky Williams had just moved into his new home at Seager Apartments in Milton the day he was murdered. Three people - one man, two women - attacked him in that apartment, and four days later, he was dead from the injuries incurred in that attack. Police have arrested the male attacker, Danny Vaughn, age 36 of Huntington, but have not arrested the females. Even so, it took them almost a month to arrest anyone, despite it allegedly being common knowledge in the community who had attacked Williams. Williams knew his attackers.

It was claimed by some to be a hate crime, because Williams was gay and his assailants allegedly called him names related to his sexual orientation during the attack; while others said he was not attacked as a result of his sexual orientation, but for other reasons.

Just to be clear, since there seems to be a lot of confusion about this issue .... if he was attacked because he was homosexual, then it's a hate crime under federal statutes (but not under WV statutes, where the hate crime laws do not cover sexual orientation); but if he was attacked for other reasons, then it is not a hate crime even if they did call him slurs during the attack.

To be even more clear ... as a humanist, and as a libertarian, I am opposed to hate crime laws. All crimes are hate crimes, after all, and all crimes of violence should be punished severely. Furthermore, why should the murder of one person be considered more or more or less heinous than the murder of another? We are all equal, or at least we are supposed to be, in the eyes of the law. As long as there are laws setting aside specific classes of people, whether for punishment or protection, equality will never be achieved.

The truth is, though it is admittedly heinous to commit violence against any person due to the color of their skin or the sexual orientation, or any other protected reason, it is quite rare. Almost always there are other even stronger motives, such as revenge or robbery. So even if hate crimes legislation is proper, it is overused when applied to all crimes against protected classes of people.

But, I digress.

As usual, the local Huntington news didn't cover the story very well, much to my chagrin since it was one of those stories which caught my attention; but Gary Harki of the Charleston Gazette wrote a very good article, explaining what happened that night.

According to witnesses, Williams had stated earlier that day that he'd had a "silly argument" with certain people, and that they were not welcome in his apartment. That night, the fight started in his apartment - it is unclear whether he allowed them in, or if they somehow got in without his knowledge and/or consent - and one of the neighbors who heard the fight called the landlord's grandson, Michael Seager, who lives on the property. Seager proceeded quickly to the apartment and confronted the attackers. Witnesses including Seager state that the two men - Williams and an assailant - were fist fighting, with Williams on the floor, when a female assailant literally tore a leg off the kitchen table, and began beating Williams with it. When neighbors intervened to stop the fight, that same woman began hitting a neighbor with the table leg as well.

Police were called and, not at all surprisingly to those familiar with law enforcement in this area, the police basically ignored the fact that a crime had occurred. They did, however, offer to take Williams to a hospital. Williams declined, saying he was okay, and the police left. Seager took Williams with him, and shortly thereafter it became clear that Williams was very seriously injured. He began to sweat profusely and became very confused, at one point saying, in response to a question about what year it was, that it was 1964. His bowels opened involuntarily, and he soiled himself. Clearly, he was very seriously injured, and based upon his symptoms had likely had suffered a severe head injury. An ambulance was called.

The two female paramedics who responded, however, did not react at all the way one would expect and demand. According to Seager, both of them refused to touch Williams, acting like children instead of medical professionals (according to the article, the conversation between the paramedics was "‘I’m not gonna touch him, you gonna touch him.’ The other says, ‘No, I’m not gonna touch him.’”). They demanded that Williams walk to the ambulance. He took a couple of steps, and collapsed onto the floor. They expressed disgust, calling him drunk (it is still unclear whether Williams had, in fact, been drinking, but friends say he did have an alcohol problem from time to time).

It has since come to light that Williams was HIV positive and had been for 10 years, but the paramedics weren't referencing his disease. Even if they had known about his HIV status (and there is no reason to believe they did), they should be prepared and professional enough to handle any emergency medical situation. Instead, they appeared to be disgusted about the fact that he had soiled himself. Seager described the EMTs as "just weird" and "criminally negligent". It certainly would seem so, which is probably why Cabell County EMS refused to comment for the article.

Williams was taken to Cabell Huntington Hospital, then to St. Mary's Medical Center, both in Huntington. It is said that there was a deep gash in his head (that being the case, why didn't paramedics realize he was seriously injured?), and that he lost consciousness; and it is alleged that he was also neglected at the hospital, since one visitor had to get staff to help arrange Williams on the bed (another big lack of surprise from me, given that St. Mary's is a hospital I wouldn't go to myself, due to recent past experience with their incompetence).

Four days later, Ricky Williams died. The gash in his head was covered by a bandage at his funeral.

As stated, police have arrested the male assailant, but have not arrested either of the female assailants. According to the Western Regional Detention Center, the man arrested is only 5'7", and weighs only 136 pounds; in other words, he was not much bigger than the average female, and smaller than many females. No one ever said he was brandishing a weapon during the fight, but several say one of the females was brandishing a table leg, and that she had repeatedly hit Williams with it.

Think about it for a moment. He died of head injuries, and there was a deep gash in his head. Is it likely that a man, using only his bare hands, caused that kind of injury? Or is it more likely that a female, wielding a table leg as a weapon, inflicted Williams' injuries?

The question then becomes, why haven't police arrested the females who attacked Williams? According to witness statements, clearly, at least one of the females was every bit as violent and out of control as the male assailant, if not more so. After all, it would never occur to the average person to tear off a table leg and attack someone with it, except perhaps in self-defense. However, the witnesses said Williams was on the floor being beaten by the male, so this was not a case of self-defense. It was a vicious, animalistic attack on a human being, over a "silly argument". So why is the woman who attacked him still walking the streets?

The community is not safe until the women who attacked Williams are behind bars, along with their male counterpart. If these women would attack a man in such a vicious manner, there is no reason to believe they wouldn't attack you, or me.