After a March 1 car crash in downtown Gettysburg killed the driver and sparked a three-alarm fire that destroyed a gift shop and damaged other buildings, I received emails informing me that the victim was possibly a man I had written about three years ago, Kurtis Darius Williams. Indeed, a 35-year-old man by that name had come to The Baltimore Sun for help in 2018. Williams had been having a tough time finding a job after serving 17 years in prison for second-degree murder, a crime related to his former life as a drug dealer. In 2001, when he was 17, Williams had pleaded guilty to fatally shooting another teen in a street argument. Released from prison, he had come back to his mother’s home in Baltimore determined to beat the odds by finding work and staying out of trouble.
Followup: Kurtis Williams was on the right path when he crashed in Gettysburg
March 26, 2021