Broncos Tragically Lose a Young Talent

[Diamond Girl]

Broncos cornerback shot and killed

Williams was city's first homicide victim of 2007

By Nancy Mitchell, Jeff Legwold and Katie Kerwin McCrimmon,

Rocky Mountain News

January 1, 2007

Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was killed and two other people were wounded in downtown Denver early Monday when the occupant of a passing vehicle unloaded a handgun into the limo in which Williams was a passenger.
Williams, 24, became the city’s first homicide victim of 2007 when he was shot shortly after 2 a.m. as he and a group of friends, including Broncos wide receiver Javon Walker, were driven away from a nightclub at 10th and Broadway.

Denver police say Williams or his friends were involved in an altercation at a club called The Shelter, a dispute that may have prompted the gunman to pursue the distinctive white Hummer stretch limo a few blocks onto the northbound lanes of 11th and Speer.

There, the gunman and others riding in a white sports utility vehicle pulled alongside the limo and fired several shots, leaving bullet holes splayed alongside the driver’s side of the vehicle and shattering a rear tinted window.

Williams, a Fort Worth, Texas, native who was a 2005 draft pick from Oklahoma State University, died instantly, Broncos running back Tatum Bell told ESPN in a brief interview. Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson said Williams was pronounced dead at Denver Health Medical Center but he declined to confirm reports that Williams was hit in the neck.

The two people who were wounded were taken to St. Anthony’s Central Hospital. Jackson declined to release names but said a man who was injured was treated and released by noon Monday. A woman who was hit was expected to be released "hopefully in the next couple of days," he said.

The woman, a 21-year-old University of Colorado student, told her father she and a friend had just accepted a ride in the limo to their car about six blocks away from the nightclub. Several blocks later, the student said she thought someone had thrown a rock through the window. Then one of the passengers shouted there were gunshots and they dived for the floor.

The student said Williams was riding in a seat in the back of the limo and she was in the left corner, along the side. She now has a bullet lodged in her head and doctors are considering whether to remove it or leave it in place.

Jackson said no shots were fired from inside the limo. He declined to release many details, including the caliber of the handgun, how many shots were fired and how many people were inside the vehicle.

Police markers at the scene of the shooting, typically indicating spent bullets and other evidence, numbered 10 and were placed across all four north-bound lanes of Speer.

Shane Anderson thought he heard firecrackers going off after 2 p.m., when he was startled by a series of loud bangs.

He was home with his fiancée, on the fifth floor of the Prado lofts building, just a block away from the shooting. Suddenly they heard sirens and saw flashing lights.

"The cops were here really fast," said Anderson.

He and his fiancée, Sandy Pulver, decided to go down and see what had happened. They saw a large Humvee limousine at the side of the road with bullet holes in the side.

"We went down there and talked to a guy from the limousine company," said Anderson. "He told us there were professional athletes in the limo. You could see the bullet holes in the back of the limo."

The windows of the Humvee were so dark it would have been impossible for the shooter to see inside the vehicle, said Anderson.

Monday morning, a trickle of Broncos fans and curious onlookers walked to the scene where the Hummer still sat, its blinkers flashing and several of its doors open. The vehicle appeared to have veered off of Speer and onto the eastern snowy shoulder, where it stopped between two trees.

Michael Martinez, 23, said he and his grandfather Gus Martinez, 65, came "to pay our respects to a fallen Bronco."

"He was one of the best in our defensive lineup," said the younger Martinez, a knit Broncos cap pulled down to his eyebrows. "Besides Champ Bailey, he was pretty good."

He stopped and stared at the police detectives working around the Hummer.

"It’s just really weird," Michael Martinez said. "I figured he would have had bodyguards or something."

Tatum Bell, a teammate of Williams’ at Oklahoma State, said he talked to Williams by phone at about 10 p.m. when the two were trying to decide where they were going to go for the rest of the evening. He also confirmed the altercation at the club.

Police, though, are not definitely connecting the dispute with the shooting.

"We’re not sure that conflict had anything to do with the shooting," Jackson said in a press briefing at the scene. "We’re not saying exactly why this happened. We’re looking at all possibilities."

But he added, "We don’t believe it was random."

The Shelter night club has three different levels, and hosts themed parties on each floor. On New Year's Eve the club hosted "Safari," a hip-hop bash held on the club's second floor. The event, which sold out, was advertised in Westword as a celebration of Denver Nuggets Kenyon Martin's birthday, with music by DJ Chief Rocka of the Radio Bums.

The 25,000 square-foot-club formerly known as Serengeti is owned by local nightlife magnate Regas Christou, with ties to The Church and The Funky Buddha. Safari was presented by Denver hip-hop promoter Francois Baptiste, who declined to comment on the shooting. The Shelter hosts periodic hip-hop events under the "Safari" name.

The CU student told her father that there had been a fight outside the club as they left, but she didn’t think anyone riding in the limo was involved in the dispute. There had also been a fight inside the club earlier in the night, but she didn’t think it was related.

"She said it all happened so fast that she really didn’t know what had happened," her dad said.

Police were still attempting to locate witnesses at the club and at the shooting scene. Jackson also said they’re still searching for the white SUV, believed to be a Suburban or a Tahoe, containing the gunman. Potential witnesses are asked to call police at 720-913-2000.

Broncos officials, including coach Mike Shanahan, were notified of the shooting about 3 a.m. Shanahan was expected to meet with Williams' family as soon as those family members arrived in Denver. Several Broncos players and coaches gathered Monday morning at Denver Health Medical Center.

Broncos spokesman Jim Saccomano said the team was in "complete shock" and said that Shanahan was "stunned" to hear the news.

"A terrible shock," said Broncos safety John Lynch. "We're all very saddened for his family, a tragic thing."

"He had a big heart and a lot of courage," said Cedric Smith, assistant strength and conditioning coach. "It's a tragedy, a complete tragedy. It's sickening."

The previous active NFL player to die was Thomas Herrion of San Francisco. He had a heart attack following an exhibition game in Denver on Aug. 20, 2005.

Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Kevin Williams played two seasons with Williams at Oklahoma State.

"It makes you want to stay home and not go out to places when you see things like that," Kevin Williams said. "You hate to see it. He was a hardworking kind of guy. He was a great guy."

The Broncos season had ended just hours before the shooting with a 26-23 overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Williams had three tackles in the game before suffering a left shoulder injury.

Williams, who was a second-round draft pick, had 88 tackles this season and four interceptions.

Broncos players were off Monday and expected to report to the team’s facility Tuesday morning for their usual check-out procedures to go into the off-season. However, some had gone to the team’s complex Monday to meet with each other and team officials.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rocky Mountain News

[Diamond Girl]

« Broncos-49ers: Fourth-Quarter/Overtime NotesBidding
Farewell to a Friend of Many »Remembering a Shining Light:

Darrent Williams

To say the least, this has been an emotionally draining day here at Dove Valley, and I apologize for not posting here sooner.

There are candles lit outside the front entrance of Broncos headquarters now. The office is silent; the hallways desolate. In other words, it’s the precise antithesis of any room into which Darrent Williams entered.

That was evident from the moment he arrived.

I have never seen anyone walk into a building in his first day on the job with the enthusiasm that this fast-talking Fort Worth native showed.

It was April 24, 2005, and the final four rounds of the draft chugged along. It is Broncos custom to bring their first-day draftees into Dove Valley on this day to meet the coaches and staff, answer questions at press conferences and display their newly-minted jerseys. Some players handle the event with distant, almost dour stoicism. Others bound from stop to stop in the building with the giddiness of someone barely one-third his age.

You could count Williams among the latter category.

A broad smile seemed tattooed to his face as he moved about the building with his fellow rookies — two of which shared his position: Domonique Foxworth and Karl Paymah. They drank the proceedings in sips with cool professionalism. Williams, on the other hand, quaffed the environment in gulps, grinning all the way, seeming to lead his fellow rookies along their quick trip around Dove Valley.

Perhaps I should have seen his unbridled joy coming, because Williams was never the kind of fellow who was going to slink meekly around. Three months earlier during Senior Bowl week, I chuckled as he high-stepped after an interception — in practice! Granted, Senior Bowl practices are about the most intense imaginable because each player hopes to impress the hundreds of coaches and scouts on hand, but that showed an ebullient, excitable spirit that would become his calling card any time he donned a helmet — whether it was in front of 76,000 onlookers at INVESCO Field or 76 media observers at a mini-camp practice during the horse latitudes of the football year.

Two years in the NFL wilds seemed to harden Williams just a smidgen. It does that to many; it is, after all, a collection of the best of the best at the game of football. Many players arrive in the NFL having known nothing but peaks on the football field; traversing the valleys and doing so with dignity and resolve is a lesson that not all are able to learn and a condition to which some cannot fully adapt.

Williams found those extremes on the field in 2006 — and he did indeed adapt.

The Oct. 29 loss to Indianapolis in particular was crushing for him, so much so that the usually talkative cornerback didn’t meet the media following the game. A day later, though, he did, and even though the blame for the big day that Colts wideout Reggie Wayne had at the Broncos’ expense was shared by many, it was the second-year cornerback who owned up to what happened.

“I’m cool with taking the heat, because it just makes me mentally tough,” Williams once said to me.

In this case, Williams vowed to make changes in the game’s wake, even when the reasons for Wayne’s receptions went well beyond his realm of responsibility.

“I’ll play a little more aggressive,” he said at the time.

But even when assessing frustration, he did so with a bounce in his voice and optimism in his heart. Sure, he’d been beat, but like the great cornerbacks he sought to emulate, he forgot about it and soldiered onward. Six days later, as though he wanted to underscore his point, he became the first Bronco in a decade to recover two fumbles in a single game in the win at Pittsburgh, pouncing on the football on a kickoff return and again after a deep reception to stifle a Steelers threat.

It was almost as though Williams declared to the world, “Is that aggressive enough for you?” as his procurements of the football sparked the Broncos to a six-takeaway day. Two weeks later, he bounded into INVESCO Field’s south end zone with his second NFL touchdown via an interception return during the home loss to the Chargers.

A month later, though, I crossed paths with a more introspective Williams in the locker room following the win over Cincinnati. In the course of answering queries from a horde of inquisitors, he’d referenced some criticism from the media, and how he didn’t worry.

“I don’t care what nobody says about me,” he said. “My teammates have got my back.”

I don’t know why, but I sensed something below the surface of his remarks, so I waited until the crowd thinned to ask him more about the subject — to find out just how aware he was of what was written and spoken about his play. I figured he’d brush off the topic with a laugh and a smile. Those were the two best arrows in his satchel; with those at his disposal, nothing seemed to faze him.

But when the question was posed, something different happened. For the first time since I’d met Williams, I heard a quiver of pain in his usually upbeat voice. It was not for what the public assessments of his play did to him. Rather, it was for those he held closest, and how they absorbed everything that was said and written about their beloved young NFLer.

“You know, I hate it when my mom and people in my family call me and say, ‘Keep your head up; don’t worry about what they say,’ and I’ll (reply),’ ‘What did they say?’ They tell me stuff they say,” Williams said on Christmas Eve. “It’s kind of sad, just how people think that way.

“It’s really hurting my family more than anything. That’s why I come out here and give it my all every week, because I’m playing not only for me, but my family, my teammates and my coaches. I really don’t care what people say about me, but ultimately, (my family) does.”

That day, Williams was feted by Broncos observers for his end-zone interception of Cincinnati’s Carson Palmer. But what meant more to him was how his teammates embraced him … just as they always did. It seemed like Williams was always at the epicenter of any on-field celebration, whether it was slapping hands with Champ Bailey after one of his many interceptions or getting a hug and a ride from John Lynch after scoring against San Diego six weeks ago.

His enthusiasm and disposition made him a sterling teammate — whether the team was the Broncos, or his family back in Fort Worth. He would do anything to protect and support both without hesitation.

Without hesitation … really, those words encapsulate the Darrent Williams to whom I asked many a question. He spoke boldly and honestly. Some might have construed his words as cockiness. But he always spoke from the heart — the same heart that bled just a tad on Christmas Eve when he spoke of how his nearest and dearest reacted to what was written and said.

It’s still hard to believe that we won’t hear that voice around here again.

Late this afternoon, as the building had mostly emptied of the staff and players who gathered here today, I hobbled into the darkened, silent locker room just to glance at the spot where Williams held court so many times with the press, staff members and teammates.

Yet even if the room were filled, it would still seem desolate without Williams around.

A lively, engaging, bright light at Dove Valley has died. It shone with every smile that Williams shared with a teammate, a coach, a staffer or an interviewer.

All the while on this sad night here, candles burn out front, giving hope that the light burns on somewhere else.

But that light is no longer with us, and for this, my heart — and I surmise, the collective heart of Broncos Country — breaks tonight.

Denver Broncos