Andra Karl Williams, 52, was found stabbed to death on Saturday, September 1, 2018, the start of the Labor Day weekend, his body dumped in a shopping cart in an alley in the 700 block of South Campbell Avenue on Chicago's Near West Side. The Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, records the address as 701 S. Campbell Ave. The Chicago Police Department investigated.
Williams used a wheelchair. He had multiple stab wounds and was found behind the West Side two-flat where he rented a room, according to his family and police. His sister Carla Williams said police called and would only tell her in person why they wanted to talk. "They didn't find his ID he always wears around his neck, or his wheelchair," she told the Sun-Times.
A few days later, police arrested Arthur Hilliard, 51, who managed the building, and charged him with concealing a homicidal death.
Police said surveillance video showed him wheeling the shopping cart with the body into the alley. He was not charged with murder. In late September, a judge lowered his bond to $50,000, then revoked it days later, calling him a danger after a pretrial assessment flagged him for violence. Police told ABC7 the investigation into the stabbing was ongoing and that "detectives continue to look for patterns." Hilliard was later convicted of the concealment charge, according to the Murder Accountability Project. In 2020 he was charged in a separate killing, the 2017 murder of 21-year-old Diamond Turner, and he was convicted of that murder in December 2025. No one has been charged with stabbing Andra Williams.
Williams was the youngest of seven children. "Andra was the baby," Carla Williams said. He had a hereditary degenerative bone disease that affected men in his family, including his father, Edward Bannister, who also uses a wheelchair. "Whoever did this is a monster," his sister said. "My brother was disabled. He couldn't run." His relatives filled a courtroom to watch the bond hearing. "Every member of my family that you see here took off from their jobs, from school, etc., and came down here to honor Andra," his father said. His family has said they did not understand why no murder charge was filed.
The 700 block of South Campbell Avenue sits on the Near West Side, west of the Illinois Medical District, a mix of two-flats, apartment buildings and alleys. Neighbors who use that alley, or who knew the people living in the building, may remember who came and went in the last days of August 2018.
Chicago recorded about 580 homicides in 2018 and about 500 in 2019. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of homicides in the years that followed, though those figures count cases closed without charges.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case for the killing of Andra Williams could be found in news archives or public records; the only charge connected to his death was for concealing it. More than 8 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible for stabbing him. Anyone who saw Andra Williams in late August 2018, or who knows what happened inside the building on South Campbell Avenue, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Chicago Police Department's anonymous tip line at (833) 408-0069 or submit a tip online at CPDTIP.com, or contact Cook County Crime Stoppers at (800) 535-STOP (7867).
