Two women are claiming a Greenwood man has been wrongfully charged with attempted murder and say they can attest to his whereabouts elsewhere at the time the alleged crime occurred.
The Leflore County Sheriff’s Department charged Travis Williams, 23, 1003 Clay Ave., Friday with two counts of attempted murder and shooting into an occupied dwelling. The incident occurred at a home on Murphree Drive, in the Glendale subdivision, early on the morning of June 12.
At 2:30 a.m. that day, the Sheriff’s Department received a report of gunfire at the residence, according to Sheriff Ricky Banks. Deputies found two people at the scene with gunshot wounds as well as evidence of multiple rounds being fired into the house. Banks declined to identify the victims.
One was airlifted to a hospital in Jackson with serious injuries, the sheriff said; the other, who’d been grazed by a bullet, was sent to Greenwood Leflore Hospital for treatment.
Eyewitnesses told deputies they saw two subjects, presumed to be male and dressed all in black, walk to the left side of the house before shooting into it, Banks said. The witnesses also told authorities that a white car had been traveling around the area prior to the gunfire.
Banks said investigators, using footage from a security camera recording from a nearby house, identified the white car as belonging to Williams. The sheriff, however, declined to explain how authorities were able to definitively link the car to the shooting incident. He said he did not want to compromise the ongoing investigation.
However, Diane Jackson and Erica Williams both say that Travis Williams could not have been involved in the shooting as around the time it occurred, they both saw him about a mile away at Bishop Apartments, where he lived.
Jackson said that she, along with two other friends, were with Williams that night driving around in his car, a white Chrysler PT Cruiser.
“I was with him until 2:05 in the morning,” Jackson said. “I was the one that was driving his car, and I parked it in his yard.”
She said that Jackson had been drinking and that after she parked his car, he went straight to bed. She said there were multiple people in the house where he was sleeping.
One of those was Erica Williams, who is not related to Travis Williams.
She said she arrived at the house around 10 p.m. and didn’t leave it until 7:30 a.m. the next day. She said she saw Travis Williams arrive at the house and go to bed. She said she could not recall what time he arrived but that she stayed up all night and is certain he did not leave during the time she was there.
“I know when he came in, he did not leave,” she said.
When told about Williams’ supposed alibi, Banks said it’s not unusual for those accused of a crime to claim they were somewhere else at the time.
He said that anyone who disputes the charges against Williams is welcome to come forward to the Sheriff’s Department. He said he had heard of no one doing so in this case.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Williams remained behind bars at the Leflore County Jail.
•Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
