A Denver Broncos football player was shot and murdered.
DENVER (Reuters) – The U.S. According to a statement on the team’s website, Denver Broncos football player Darrent Williams was killed in a drive-by shooting early Monday morning.
According to Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson, Williams, 24, was riding in a limousine in downtown Denver shortly after 2 a.m. (4 a.m. EST/0900 GMT) when gunfire fired from another vehicle struck him and a guy and woman in his car.
“Multiple shots were fired into the vehicle, striking three people and one male party was transported to a hospital and was pronounced dead,” Jackson told reporters.
In a statement, the organization announced, “Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed early Monday morning.”
According to Jackson, the two injured people were also transferred to a nearby hospital with “non-life threatening injuries.” According to him, police have no suspects and are interviewing eyewitnesses.
“It is a terrible tragedy,” said National Football League spokesperson Greg Aiello, according to Reuters. “We don’t know all the details yet, but we are reaching out to the Broncos to offer our support.”
The shooting happened just hours after the Broncos were eliminated from the playoffs after falling to the San Francisco 49ers in overtime, 26-23.
Williams was in his second season with the Broncos after being drafted in the second round out of Oklahoma State University.
In 2005, the 5-foot-8 (1.7-meter), 188-pound (85.4 kg) cornerback started nine games, the most by a rookie at that position since 1975. In 2005, he had two interceptions; this season, he has four.
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New Year’s Day, in 2007, Denver Broncos’ young, promising cornerback Darrent Williams was shot after getting in his Hummer limousine after hitting up a night club. The murderer was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder and the entire organization mourned over the loss of their talented, opportunistic, young defender.
Fast forward four years—and a ton of controversy—later and, finally, we have a good idea of what the hell happened that night.
According to Sports Illustrated, those bullets, which carried in them the fate of Darrent Williams, were intended for then-Broncos’ wide receiver Brandon Marshall.
It’s an amazing read, and worth the pages of commentary: The piece talks about the run-in Brandon Marshall had with the murderer-to-be, the gang that accompanied the killer and why, probably, Williams was killed.
To summarize (shallowly), Little Willie (Williams’ murderer) and his gang—who dealt cocaine in Denver’s eastern area—had found their attention drawn to then-rookie Brandon Marshall, who had made quite a scene outside of the night club after a bouncer (at first) refused Marshall entry.
Marshall found himself trying to alleviate the trouble that the gang members had attempted to generate after a few hours on New Year’s Eve.
In the end, Little Willie and his gang’s issues were with Brandon Marshall, not Darrent Williams. Marshall’s life was saved by an error, but Darrent Williams’ was taken.
While Williams’ death was lamented, Brandon Marshall went on to enjoy a lot of success in the NFL, signing a four-year, $47.5 million contract extension.
The piece emphasizes how easily things may have gone in a completely opposite path. Darrent Williams, like Little Willie, grew up in a difficult area. Despite the fact that both were surrounded by drug gangs, it was Williams who did low wage jobs before going on to play college football and become a professional player. The post beautifully observes that it might have easily been Darrent Williams discharging a gun and murdering someone somewhere else.
But he didn’t because of his hardworking manner. That means Brandon Marshall survived, despite the fact that he was the one who had the run-in with the gang, not Williams.
And the repercussions were almost certainly reverberating. Brandon Marshall has been entangled in continual legal difficulties since that New Year’s Eve in 2007, despite his great play. Because it was practically his fault that Williams was killed, he may have been compelled to go through anger management as well as play with a passion to go along with his physical talent.
Whatever it was, Darrent Williams accidentally saved Brandon Marshall’s life.
