Family of slain YMCA counselor seeks justice

Pierre Williams, 19, was shot twice in the head while sitting in his car outside his grandparents’ Raleigh home on Grantland Drive in July 2002. Investigators said they think Williams' slaying was a case of mistaken identity.

One arrest was made in Williams' death, but those charges were dropped for unknown reasons.

Family and friends held a prayer vigil last week to renew their call for justice.

In a 2002 interview, Daisy Partridge, Williams' grandmother, said her grandson was a young man who put family and church first.

"He ushered. He went to Bible study Wednesday night. He sang with another choir. He played the drums there. He went to Bible study Tuesday," she said.

Williams worked at the Vena Wilburn YMCA. He was planning to attend the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

In 2002, his mother, Deborah Partridge, talked about seeing her son in the hospital with tubes in his body after the shooting.

"He’d never been sick a day in his life," she said. "I didn’t bring him in this world like that, and I didn’t want him to go out like that."

Rebie Partridge, Williams' grandfather who raised him since he was 6 years old, said justice would help ease the pain.

"I want the law to do whatever they can do to prosecute to the fullest, to the fullest of the law," he said in a 2002 interview.