Officer Walter T. Williams III, 34, was killed while on patrol in the early morning hours of December 18, 1992. A Waterbury Police Department officer and an eight-year veteran, he stopped to investigate two men he suspected of a hand-to-hand narcotics sale at Orange and Ward Streets. As he began patting them down, one man deliberately bumped him to check for body armor, then drew a .380 caliber pistol and fired a single fatal shot behind Williams’ right ear. The suspects fled on foot and a passerby found the wounded officer and summoned help by radio.

Detectives located two suspects within hours hiding in an upstairs apartment on Wood Street and recovered the murder weapon. Richard Reynolds, 24, confessed to the shooting; an associate, Anthony Crawford, was also apprehended. Officer Williams died that evening at St. Mary’s Hospital, eleven days before his third son was due to be born. He was a U.S. Air Force veteran and was survived by his wife and three sons.

Did anyone in the neighborhood at the time remember seeing the patrol car or two men near Orange and Ward Streets that morning?