Nathaniel Reginald Williams

Do you know who murdered Nathaniel Reginald Williams?
Nathaniel Reginald Williams, a 41-year-old African-American man known to have a large family and a career as a plumber, was killed in the summer of 1995, a time when Washington, D.C., was experiencing a high number of homicides. His death would remain a painful, unanswered question for his loved ones for more than two decades, a cold case in the files of the Metropolitan Police Department.

On the evening of Tuesday, July 18, 1995, a burst of violence erupted inside Williams’s home in the Garfield Heights neighborhood of Southeast Washington. Police were called to the 3100 block of 20th Street, SE, where they discovered Williams in an upstairs bedroom. He had been shot multiple times at close range, suffering five gunshot wounds to his head and one to his left arm. Paramedics who responded to the scene found no signs of life, and he was pronounced dead. According to a court affidavit filed later, his body may have been in the house for a full day before being discovered.

The initial investigation was handled by the Metropolitan Police Department. Detectives questioned Williams's stepson, Taron Oliver, who was 21 years old at the time, but a lack of evidence prevented them from making an arrest. With no other leads, the case grew cold. For years, Williams's death was another unsolved file, his family left without justice or a clear understanding of what had happened. The police department included his case on its list of unsolved homicides, hoping that someone would eventually come forward with the missing piece of the puzzle.

That breakthrough finally came more than 20 years later. In May 2016, a crucial witness provided detectives with new information. The witness, described as an acquaintance of Oliver's, confided in one of Nathaniel Williams's sons, who was a deputy with the Prince George's County Sheriff's Department. The acquaintance told investigators that on the day of the murder, he had heard gunshots from inside the Williams home and then witnessed Taron Oliver hiding what appeared to be a firearm. He also recalled that about a month before the killing, Oliver had tried to give him a box of bullets.

This new testimony was enough for police to secure an arrest warrant. On December 29, 2016, members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force located and arrested Taron Oliver, then 42 and living in Oxon Hill, Maryland. He was charged with first-degree murder while armed in connection with the 1995 death of his stepfather, Nathaniel Williams.

At a news conference following the arrest, D.C. Police Captain Anthony Haythe, head of the homicide unit, confirmed that the new witness testimony was what allowed the cold case to move forward. However, a motive for the killing remained unclear. “We're not sure of the motive,” Haythe stated at the time. “That's still under investigation.”

The arrest of Taron Oliver, more than 21 years after Nathaniel Williams was killed, brought a renewed sense of hope to his family that they might finally see justice served. As of the announcement of the arrest in December 2016, the case against Oliver was pending in the District of Columbia court system. The Metropolitan Police Department continues to list the case and encourages anyone with information to come forward. A reward of up to $25,000 is offered for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for any homicide in the District of Columbia.