In his hometown of Aiken, South Carolina, 19-year-old Moses Williams Jr. was known and loved by many. His family and friends called him “Fat Man,” a nickname he’d had since childhood. A 2011 graduate of Aiken High School, where he had played football, Moses was a young man with deep local roots, surrounded by his parents, Timica James and Moses Williams Sr., siblings, and grandparents. He had recently become a father to a son, Devin, and was remembered as a dedicated parent who worked seven days a week to provide for his child. Friends recalled a young man everyone loved, with a perfect smile and a bright future. He had considered joining the Navy, like his grandfather, but chose to stay close to his family and his son.
The night of Sunday, February 5, 2012, was Super Bowl Sunday, and Moses had spent part of the day at a party at his uncle’s house. Later that evening, around 11:30 p.m., he was sitting in the driver's seat of his car outside a residence on Bradley Lane.
His girlfriend and her sister were inside the home, not far from where he was parked. Suddenly, a single gunshot broke the neighborhood quiet. His girlfriend ran outside and found Moses slumped over in the car with a gunshot wound to his head. In a desperate attempt to save him, she moved him to the passenger seat and drove directly to Aiken Regional Medical Center. Despite her efforts, doctors could not save him. Moses Williams Jr., a male, was pronounced dead at 1:26 a.m. on February 6, 2012.
The Aiken Department of Public Safety launched a homicide investigation, but the case was immediately hampered by a lack of clear motive or cooperative witnesses. Investigators publicly stated they were exploring the possibility that Moses was a victim of mistaken identity, among other theories. The shooting had occurred in a residential area with people nearby, yet no one came forward to identify the shooter. Neighbors at a nearby residence reported hearing the shot, followed by the sound of someone running past their window and a car speeding away. In the days following the murder, while pursuing leads, detectives arrested three men on unrelated drug and weapon charges, but none were ever charged in connection with Moses’s death.
In the years that followed, Moses’s mother, Timica James, became a relentless advocate for her son, determined to find answers. She and her family organized events to keep his memory alive and plead for information. In 2013, a gathering was held in the Hahn Village neighborhood where he was killed to encourage community members to break the silence. A billboard featuring Moses’s case was later erected in Aiken in another effort to generate tips. According to the podcast "The Fall Line," Timica made a promise to law enforcement: she would prevent her family from conducting their own investigation if they could solve the case within ten years. In a 2021 interview, she tearfully recalled her final moments with her son at the hospital, laying her head on his chest and listening for his heart to stop.
The ten-year anniversary of the shooting passed on February 5, 2022, with no arrests made and no justice for Moses’s family. His mother described the grief as turning her into a "monster," a pain shared by other local families who had lost children to unsolved violence. His sister, Vanessa Drummings, expressed her belief that people in the community knew what happened but were unwilling to provide evidence to police.
As of October 2026, the murder of Moses Williams Jr. remains unsolved. The Aiken Department of Public Safety has conducted periodic reviews of the cold case, but without new leads, the investigation has stalled. The identity of the person who shot him and the reason for the killing are still unknown. A cash reward is available through Crimestoppers of the Midlands for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call (888) CRIME-SC (274-6372).
