As Jason Williams told his son’s killer before the judge Thursday, “You entered the story and violated our family, and you introduced an evil into our lives.”
See more of our coverage in your search results. Hung-over Knicks fans collided on the morning subway with tourists in soccer jerseys coming in for the World Cup.
They remained anchored to the horrors of 2020, and the city’s 47% spike that year in murders. The proceeding was straightforward: Judge Deepa Ambekar sentenced 30-year-old William Freeman to 18 years in prison on a manslaughter plea, forFreeman hadn’t targeted Ethan: He shot — eight times! — It took more than two years of NYPD work — and a traffic stop over a minor violation — to make an arrest.
The courtroom spectators neatly divided themselves: on the left benches, the killer’s family and friends, many wearing blue-and-orange Knicks t-shirts. On the right, in crisp workplace attire, were 25 out-of-towners who had flown in to support Ethan’s parents, brother and girlfriend as they spoke in court. A first-time visitor to New York, Ethan had arrived from Indianapolis for a skateboarding tournament and to see the sites featured in his favorite Spider-Man films, his father Jason told the courtroom.
Ethan, an aspiring filmmaker, saw the city as a “cinematic playground . . . to come to New York for the first time was a big deal,” Jason said. But mostly he wanted to meet people, which is why he was sitting on the Brooklyn stoop of his AirBnB.
Jason told Ethan what any nervous parent tells his kid: “The last time I texted to him . . . was keep your head on a swivel. New York isn’t home.
” Instead, as Jason told his son’s killer before the judge, “You entered the story and violated our family, and you introduced an evil into our lives. ” “For a lot of people, Ethan’s death was a headline,” Ethan’s mother Susan said. Yet the family publicly forgave Freeman Thursday — and Susan counseled him to take his debt to them seriously by becoming a better person in prison.
“William, I want to talk to you now,” Susan said. “You are beloved. I want to acknowledge today your family’s loss . .
. Violence multiplies suffering. ” “I think that’s not gonna help nothing,” he said.
“What I did was terrible. ” By the time Ethan’s parents, brother and girlfriend were done speaking, even the court stenographer was crying — and the sniffles from Freeman’s family’s side of the room were just as audible as those from the Williamses’ side. this crime. Before Freeman shot toward Ethan multiple times, he had racked up nine arrests, including for gun possession.
In January 2020, cops caught him stealing baby formula from a Manhattan store while toting a switchblade. when he skipped court appearances. New York is safer now, withOver the past half-decade, public and political pressure has pushed Gov. Kathy Hochul to tighten our criminal-justice laws — and some of that pressure came from Ethan’s family.
“When Ethan died, a promise I made to myself, a promise I made to him, if I can bring any good to this, I would,” Jason told me Friday. As Jason told me, “The murder is the first trauma. It’s just repeated traumas after that” — having to push the criminal-justice system along at every step.
No one involved in this case can explain why it took three-plus years since Freeman’s arrest to achieve a plea bargain; the evidence is on film. anarchy in Midtown ManhattanJason and Susan, on their four visits to New York since 2020, have amply experienced its disorder: They’ve been verbally harassed on the streets around Times Square. But he can know that Ethan’s too-short trip made New York a better place.
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