MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade police arrested a 42-year-old man on a charge of attempted murder on Monday, a little more than three years to the day after they say he went into a grocery store with an AK-47 and started a shootout that sent customers running for cover.
Police say that on April 20, 2020, at about 6:15 a.m., Travis Vincent Williams walked into the LT Food Market at 4330 NW 27th Ave. in the Brownsville area while wearing a mask.
A police report says that Williams and the other man had a “exchange of words” while Williams was carrying the gun. The other man, who was carrying a pistol, shot first in self-defense.
Williams, who lives in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, “fired randomly into the store,” according to what the police wrote. This caused a lot of damage and made the store’s customers and manager afraid for their lives.
Authorities said that Williams then pulled out a silver handgun and fired shots at both the victim and the door “to try to shoot out the glass so he could get out.”
According to the story, the other man got a scratch wound and “disfigurement” to his head.
In the days that followed, several people told police that the suspect was “Yak,” which was Williams’ street name and a person they knew.
Investigators said that videos posted on social media helped them figure out that Williams bought the AK-47 on April 13 at a junk shop in Allapattah.
Police said they found out in February that Williams had been arrested in Tampa in June 2020. They also said that ballistics data from Tampa police matched gun rounds found at the food store.
The story says that Williams was taken into police custody on Monday.
The story says that Williams turned down an interview at the Northside district office of the Miami-Dade Police Department.
“If I’m not being arrested, let me go so I can get to my bed,” Williams reportedly told the officers. “Take me to jail if I’m being arrested. I don’t wanna talk.”
Williams didn’t get to sleep in his bed on Monday night. Instead, he was taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and charged with trying to kill someone and showing a gun in the wrong way.
As of Tuesday afternoon, he was being held without a fee.
Court records show that Williams was charged with serious attack with a gun in 2007, but the charges were dropped a little more than two years later.
These records show that he has had many other run-ins with the law.
