A Queens father was shot just days before his 40th birthday as he rushed to the aid of a friend who had just been groped by a gunman, his shocked mother said.
Larthorne Williams, 39, carried a gun Friday around 7:30 p.m. after Williams' on-again, off-again girlfriend called her and said another man had slapped her on the buttocks. Police and her family said she was approached by a creepy man.
Police say the argument turned physical, and the other man pulled out a gun and shot Williams in the abdomen and left shoulder.
“The world is just crazy right now,” his mother, Beverly Williams, told the Post on Tuesday as she planned her son's funeral. “I don't know what's going on with the guns. Everybody has a gun.”
The man who shot and killed Williams would have been on his birthday Wednesday but was still at large as his grieving family tried to make sense of the senseless violence.
When Beverly Williams called, she said her son was “her king.”
“His brother always said he was my favorite,” said the 62-year-old retired home health aide.
“No, it's not like he was my favorite. He was just someone who stuck with me. He went where I went too. Even if someone was breathing hard on me, he I wasn't feeling it. Don't mess with his mother.
“He was always there for me, my protector,” she continued, tears streaming from her eyes. “It's a tragedy, a real tragedy. I never in a million years would have dreamed of something like this.”
The death left her “walking through a nightmare,” said the devastated matriarch.
“This boy was my heart,” she said. “They tore my heart out.”
Friends, family and neighbors set up outside her home with candles, empty Hennessy bottles, teddy bears and a message board filled with heartbreaking letters about Williams, who was called a “bad guy.” An impromptu memorial was erected.
“Rest in peace, King,” one message read, referring to the slain man who had two daughters and a son.
Her 16-year-old daughter, Kashna Williams, vowed to “protect our heritage and our family.”
“Please keep your name true, BAD lives on, I love you forever and your baby will miss you,” Kashna wrote.
Beverly Williams said her son had just moved into a new apartment in Queens, Jamaica, and the family attended Nick Cannon's “Wild 'n Out Live” at Barclays Center on Friday, and was excited to hear about her upcoming son. He was planning to celebrate his birthday.
But that celebration never came.
“My baby is gone,” she cried. “He's gone.”
Latasha Nicholson, Kashna Williams' mother, added that Williams was a creative soul who loved Red Lobster, enjoyed theme parks and holidays.
“He's very creative,” she said. “He makes Halloween costumes and goes trick-or-treating with the kids. We don't know what's going to happen this year.
“He spends his holidays wearing tacky Christmas sweaters. That's his job.”
Beverly Williams said she gave her son the nickname “Badness” after falling into the bathtub and breaking his ankle when she was nine months pregnant.
“I said, 'Oh, this kid is going to be in trouble,'” she said. “But he was never in trouble. He's just the bad guy for Rashaun.”
Williams, who has a tattoo of the first three letters of her mother's name on her neck, also loves rap music and, as a teenager, listened to the music from Jay-Z's 1999 song “Do It Again.” He appeared in the video. Said.
His mother said she wasn't surprised he died trying to help others, it was just his personality.
He had apparently just rekindled a relationship with the woman he was rushing to protect his honor.
“She said someone slapped her on the butt,” Beverly said. “He came, I think he said something to that guy, and now my child is dead.
“The person who did this is hiding somewhere and running away, but he can't run away forever,” she said.
“There is no statute of limitations for murder,” she continued. “I hope they rot in prison, I really do. I hope they don't have a day that doesn't go according to plan.
“I hope they sit in their cells and just think about it.”
