ORLANDO, Fla. – The family of a man who was shot and killed while riding an ATV in Winter Garden last week has hired attorney Ben Crump, according to a news release from Ben Crump Law.
Ralph Hensel, 57, is accused of first-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Ja’Keem Williams, according to the Winter Garden Police Department. Williams was ultimately pronounced dead after first responders found him on the ground next to an ATV on Feb. 20, police said.
According to Hensel’s arrest affidavit, witnesses say the 57-year-old walked from the Bay Pointe Apartments leasing office area toward Williams and shouted at him before two shots were heard. This occurred after a leasing office manager had reported that someone was riding an ATV back and forth nearby, the affidavit states, adding Hensel then walked back toward the office allegedly saying, “I killed him.”
“Investigators arrived on the scene and determined that there was a disturbance in reference to an ongoing issue with subjects riding motorcycles in the apartment complex, and a subject had fired a gun at the motorcyclist,” police said in a statement.
[MORE: What people at the complex told News 6 after the deadly shooting]
During a news conference Friday morning at Crump’s office along S. Orange Avenue, Williams was described by family and friends as a working father of three, a person who loved to laugh and have fun, and his mother’s “baby” alongside his three other siblings.
“My son was so happy. He was the jokester (...) you know, he goofy, our family know that, and literally I see him on the 19th and we was talking,” said Keisha Rolle-McNeal, Williams’ mother. “My son. I should not be burying my son. I shouldn’t have to be here in this place right now, talking to you, and burying my son, but I declare justice for Ja’Keem DeShun Williams, I want justice for my baby because it should not be this way.”
Crump claimed that Hensel, whom he described as a maintenance man for the apartment complex, had gained a reputation for regularly threatening people nearby.
“Based on what people have told the family, who live there, he had a tendency to try to intimidate people from riding on their ATVs in the lot that was next to the apartment complex, and people did it on a regular basis and he kept threatening them, would call the police, and I guess the witnesses and the neighbors say he threatened that if the police weren’t going to do anything about it, he was gonna ‘handle it,’” Crump said. “(...) I guess him ‘handling the situation’ meant that he waited for Ja’Keem to come riding on the ATV and he took the gun out of the office of the apartment complex and went and shot him in cold blood. And then, as I understand that, he went back into the apartment office where, apparently, an acquaintance — they said his girlfriend or someone — was there, and he just waited as if there was nothing wrong that he had did.”
Attorney Natalie Jackson said her team would investigate whether the shooting could be considered a hate crime.
“This family wants to know everything. They want to know who to hold accountable and why this happened. You know, was it because of noise? Was it because, you know, someone who was mentally unstable was provoked by noise? Or was there something more sinister? That is the thing that we’ll be looking into,” she said.
Watch the news conference again in the video player below or by clicking here.