Man Who Shot Up a Bronx Precinct Was ‘Tired of Police Officers’

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Pool photo by Anthony DelMundo

When Robert L. Williams walked out of Elmira state prison three years ago, he was a free man for the first time in nearly 15 years. He was 43 and had spent half his life in prison. His last crime spree had ended in a gun battle with the police.

He told relatives he wanted to get to know his teenage son. “He was glad to get home,” his grandmother, Mary Williams, said. “He was spending time with his son.”

But six months later, his son died after shooting himself by accident, and Mr. Williams went into a downward spiral, falling back into using heavy drugs, she said. His drug use led to a run-in with the police during which they used a Taser to arrest him.

Then, over the weekend, he attacked, the police said. He shot at two officers in a police van on Saturday night, wounding one, then walked into a Bronx precinct the next morning and opened fire, hitting a lieutenant.

On Monday, Mr. Williams, 45, was formally charged in Bronx criminal court with 14 counts of attempted murder. A prosecutor, Burim Namani, said Mr. Williams had told investigators in videotaped interviews that he carried out the attacks because “he was tired of police officers.” Later, Mr. Namani said, Mr. Williams told officers at a hospital that he would shoot them once he was released.

A day after the rampage ended, a clearer picture is emerging of a volatile man who became further unhinged after the death of his 18-year-old son, Robert Williams Jr.

He set up a shrine to the teenager on his bedside table and became depressed, his grandmother said, relying on hallucinogenic drugs. Ms. Williams, 80, said her grandson was probably high when he approached the police over the weekend.

“I think he was letting drugs take over his life,” Ms. Williams said.

Mr. Williams’s son, known as B.J., was killed when a friend passed him a gun, according to a police official who had seen a videotape of the incident. He fumbled the weapon and accidentally pulled the trigger. The teenager had been preparing to attend college in upstate New York, Ms. Williams said.

Following the accident, Mr. Williams, who had been arrested in 1994 for narcotics possession, began getting high regularly, his grandmother said. In recent months, he began harboring anger toward law enforcement.

In November 2018, Mr. Williams ran his car into a median near the Cross-Bronx Expressway, according to court documents. When officers arrived, he appeared to be asleep inside the car. He tried several times to put the key in the ignition, then he got out and jumped onto the median, according to court documents.

When officers went to arrest him, Mr. Williams began flailing his arms, according to the complaint. He shouted “Get off me” and attempted to twist away from officer’s handcuffs. Police officers eventually used a stun gun to subdue him, Ms. Williams said.

Inside his car they discovered a burning cigarette that contained the hallucinogenic drug phencyclidine, or P.C.P., commonly called angel dust, according to court documents. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest and driving under the influence.

Prosecutors asked that Mr. Williams be held on bail, but a judge released him on his own recognizance. He was sent to Rikers Island for violating his parole, but was released again in January 2019, the Bronx district attorney’s office said. He was due in court on Monday for that case.

Mr. Williams had been working odd jobs in his neighborhood, his grandmother said. Most recently, he had been working on a truck, collecting donated clothes from bins. She urged him to enroll in a drug rehabilitation program and try to find more stable employment, she said.

The police next encountered Mr. Williams on Feb. 4, 2020. He was ill outside a gas station and told officers he had high blood pressure. His vital signs were elevated, and he was taken to the hospital, according to a police report.

Four days later, at around 8 p.m. on Saturday, the police say, Mr. Williams approached a parked police van in Hunts Point and asked two officers for directions. As they talked, Mr. Williams pulled out a pistol and began shooting. The officer driving the van, Paul Stroffolino, was struck by bullets in the neck and chin, with the shots narrowly missing his carotid artery.

Mr. Williams then walked a block and ordered Chinese food for dinner, Mr. Namani, the prosecutor, said.

Twelve hours later, at around 8 a.m., Mr. Williams walked into the 41st Precinct station and began shooting, striking a veteran lieutenant, Jose Gautreaux, in the arm. Another officer was injured in the incident.

Surveillance video from inside the precinct shows him shooting at several officers and civilian employees. After he ran out of bullets, he lay on the floor and slid his gun toward officers.

“This is a premeditated assassination attempt,” Police Commissioner Dermot F. Shea said on Sunday.

The officers were released from area hospitals on Monday afternoon, as their colleagues cheered them.

Mr. Williams was first arrested on robbery charges when he was just 14, and was in and out of jail for years after that. In 1995, he was convicted of robbery and sent to Bare Hill correctional facility upstate. He was released twice on parole and then returned twice for violations, according to court records.

Mr. Williams completed his sentence in March 2001. Just a year later, he shot at a person, carjacked a woman to escape and wrecked the stolen car. Then he exchanged fire with the officers who were trying to capture him. He was serving an 18-year sentence for attempted murder when he was released in 2017.

On Monday, Mr. Williams, his face still swollen from the blows he absorbed as he was arrested, stared downward as he was arraigned in a courtroom packed with police officers and leaders of the city’s police unions. He is being held at Rikers Island.

Mr. Williams’s mother, Arvie Nelson, said the criminal justice system had failed to prepare her son for a productive life after two decades in prison. He had been in a drug treatment program after his release, she said, but he fell apart when his son died.

Recently, Ms. Nelson said she had helped her son change his insurance so that he would be eligible for drug treatment. She said he could be a good person. He liked to play with his nieces and nephews and help neighbors lug heavy bags up the steps.

She said she was “sorry about what happened to the cops” but also concerned that her son appeared to have been beaten during his arrest. “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” she said.

Katie Van Syckle, Ashley Southall, Laura Dimon and Andrea Salcedo contributed reporting.