John Jefferson
Inset: Ralph Hensel (Orange County Jail). Background: Scene where Hensel allegedly shot 32-year-old Ja’Keem Williams to death at an apartment complex in Winter Garden, Florida. (WESH/YouTube).
A 57-year-old Florida man hid behind an apartment building and waited for a man on an ATV to drive by before he shot him to death following a complaint about him riding in the complex, authorities say.
Ralph Francis Hensel stands accused of first-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Ja’Keem Williams. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, the leasing office manager at the Bay Pointe apartments in Winter Garden, an Orlando suburb, called police just before 4 p.m. to complain about a man riding an ATV in the complex. Just a minute later, another call came in to report that someone had been shot.
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Cops arrived on scene and found a resident completing CPR on a man later identified as Williams. But it was “apparent he was deceased,” the affidavit said. Witnesses told officers they saw Hensel, armed with a gun, walk from the leasing area toward Williams as he drove the ATV. Hensel shouted something at Williams, but witnesses could not make out what he was saying. Shortly after that, the witnesses heard two loud bangs.
Hensel allegedly walked back to the leasing office and said “I killed him.” Cops on scene took Hensel into custody and recovered a gun nearby. Surveillance video confirmed that Hensel was allegedly the shooter. It showed him walking from the leasing office and around a nearby building with his firearm, where he stood “lying in wait,” according to police. Hensel then shot Williams as he rode past, cops said.
Detectives also reviewed the 911 call from the office manager with a man in the background saying “that motherf—er’s dead,” according to the affidavit.
Local CBS affiliate WKMG said it knocked on the door of Hansel’s apartment. The woman who answered was the leasing manager that initially called 911. She told the outlet she lived with Hansel but declined to speak further because the complex’s owners told her not to speak publicly about the case.
According to NBC affiliate WESH cops have been to the complex four times about people riding ATVs. The riders had been warned not to drive the ATVs in the complex, per the TV station. But Briana Bermudez, the mother of three of Williams’ five children, told the outlet that was no excuse to shoot and kill him.
“He took the father of my three children with no remorse, walked off saying, I shot him,” Bermudez said. “He’s gone. He did not care. You shot him? Not once, but twice in the back of the head.”
Bermudez said Williams enjoyed riding ATVs as a way to decompress. He leaves behind children ages 11, 10, 6, 4 and 11 months. The two mothers of his children sat down for an interview with local Fox affiliate WOFL.
“He was very active, her two kids are older,” Bermudez said. “He’s been with them for ten years, stepped in. Those are his kids, five kids, so that’s all the man cared about. That’s what he did, day in and day out.”
Hensel is in the Orange County Jail without bond. He has a court date scheduled for Feb. 28.
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