Fatally wounded, Norwich victim begged gunman not to shoot him again
As Anthony Lashawn Williams lay on a Norwich street last summer, bleeding from a gunshot wound to his torso, he asked a friend not to shoot him again, according to newly released court documents.
Just hours after being released from prison, Williams was shot by a man police identified as 40-year-old Phillip C. Wise after the two allegedly got into an argument on Lake Street.
A few hours later, Williams, who was 39, was pronounced dead.
Police initially responded to reports of a shooting near 37 Lake St. about 4:30 p.m. on July 21, 2020.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit unsealed in New London Superior Court on Friday, witnesses around that time saw Williams and his brother walking down Lake Street toward a red Hyundai that was parked outside of a white apartment building. Williams started arguing with someone in the vehicle and as he walked away, a man police identified as Wise got out of the car and fired one shot, striking Williams in the torso.
The shooter then stood over Williams and pointed a gun at him as Williams, who was bleeding, begged him not to shoot, the warrant said.
The shooter ran from the scene and Williams was loaded into a car and taken to Backus Hospital by his fianceé, who was not named in the warrant. He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 5:46 p.m.
Williams' aunt, Benita Christian, of New London, said Wise was a family friend who had known Williams for years.
"He broke bread with us, he was like a family member," she said inside the Norwich courthouse last month. "We used to go out and do all kinds of stuff together, go to parties and dancing."
The warrant for Wise's arrest, issued on July 24, 2020, was unsealed on Friday, weeks after Wise was arraigned in a tense court hearing, where members of Williams' family became emotional and forced the court into recess.
Wise was arrested during a traffic stop in North Carolina in January and was brought to Norwich on Feb. 23. He was arraigned in Norwich court the next morning where his case was transferred to Part A in New London, where major crimes are heard.
Wise, whose last known address was 37 Lake St., was charged with murder. He was arraigned in New London on Feb. 26 before Judge Hillary B. Strackbein, who ordered him held on a $2 million bond. He is scheduled to next appear in court on April 6.
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