'Senseless'

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 2, 2007 | by DAVID RAMSEY Gazette Sports columnist

DENVER - The massive white limousine rested beside Speer Boulevard. A window had been gunned out. Blood stained the snow. Women and men, girls and boys moved as close as police would allow.

They were staring at a stretch H2 Hummer, which seats as many as 23 people. They were trying to make sense of a few seconds of violence that never will make sense.

This is where Darrent Williams lost his life.

On a stretch of Speer Boulevard between 10th and 11th streets, some angry fool used a handgun to shoot Williams and take from him - - and us -- all his tomorrows.

The limo rested close by the peacefully flowing Cherry Creek. It rested there as a temporary monument to senselessness.

Jon'te Dotson, 11, and his friend

Steve Armijo, 15, rode their bikes

from their homes near 9th Street. They heard about Williams' death on TV. They wanted to see the limo with their own eyes.

"It makes me feel sad," Dotson said as he sat on a red Sting Ray. "Why would somebody shoot somebody for nothing? Just because of a fight? It's stupid."

It is stupid. We shoot each other at a ridiculous rate, and this death stains all of us. It's the curse of our land.

We often turn to euphemisms when we talk about handguns. They protect us from evil, we say, and their use is guarded by our Constitution.

But handguns also offer a horrifically convenient way to place someone -- in this case a bubbly Denver Broncos cornerback -- 6 feet under. The handgun that left blood in the snow and sent Williams to the morgue didn't protect anyone.

Williams was pronounced dead at Denver Health Center, just east of the crime scene. A few hours earlier he had been running with a football at Invesco Field at Mile High, listening to the shouts of thousands of Broncos fans.

For no good reason, Williams reclined on a hospital bed in a room with white walls. His friends stood in a cramped, drab waiting room, hoping for good news. He was dead because of some silly argument. He was dead for no reason.

Speer is a road from my youth. I grew up a few blocks from Denver Health Center and often rode my bike down the boulevard to a library. I drank strawberry milkshakes with my father at the Arby's that sits a few doors down from the red-tiled nightclub at 1037 Broadway where the arguing began that apparently led to the shooting.

It was strange to stand on this familiar ground, on a sunny day, on the first day of the new year, gazing at bullet holes and blood while talking to strangers about Williams. Sad. Tragic. Frightening. Unbelievable. These were words I heard over and over.

He was just a kid. I remember listening to him talk with amazement last season about the kindness Champ Bailey offered him. Bailey had reached out to Williams, encouraged him, informed him he could be special.

"He's just a real cool guy," Williams said then. In his excitement, he sounded about 14 years old.

Williams had not yet lost his ability to be amazed. He was still thrilled and a little surprised to be playing football for a paycheck. He was so full of promise, and on Sunday night so much seemed ahead. By the wee hours of Monday morning, he was lost to us forever.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-4895 or david.ramsey@gazette.com

TIMELINE

Sunday, Dec. 31.

2:16 p.m.

San Francisco's Joe Nedney kicks off to begin the Broncos-49ers game.

About 2:45 p.m.

On the 49ers' first drive, Darrent Williams and Ian Gold tackle 49ers running back Frank Gore to force a punt with 10:32 left in the first quarter. Williams returns that punt 16 yards to set up the Broncos' second possession.

About 3:30 p.m.

On the second play of the second quarter, Williams returns a punt 34 yards to set up Denver's second field goal, which gave the Broncos a 6-0 lead.

About 5 p.m.

Williams leaves the game at the end of the third quarter with a sore left shoulder.

6:02 p.m.

Nedney kicks a 36-yard field goal to give San Francisco a 26-23 victory and prevent the Broncos from making the playoffs.

About 10 p.m.

Broncos running back Tatum Bell says he talked by phone to Williams to discuss where each was going for New Year's Eve parties.

Between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.

Williams, other Broncos, some Nuggets players and friends are among those celebrating New Year's Eve at The Shelter, a club at 1037 Broadway in Denver. Some sort of altercation occurs between Williams' group and another group.

Monday, Jan. 1

Shortly after 2 a.m.

A white SUV, according to police, pulls up next to a rented white H2 Hummer limousine carrying Williams and an undetermined number of other people. Multiple shots are fired from the SUV into the limousine, which stops near the corner of 11th Avenue and Speer Boulevard. The SUV speeds off. After police and paramedics arrive, Williams is rushed to Denver Health Center, where he is pronounced dead. Brandon Flowers and Nicole Reindl, who were also in the limo and also injured by the gunfire, are taken to St. Anthony's Hospital. Flowers is later released. Reindl remains hospitalized.

4:27 p.m.

Police drive the Hummer limousine from the crime scene.

4:55 p.m.

Near the corner of 11th Avenue and Delaware Street, one block from where the limo stopped, eight candles, five stuffed animals, a Broncos jacket, three Broncos hats, a ticket stub to the 49ers game, flowers and a poster -- with a pen to sign and leave messages -- form a makeshift shrine to Darrent Williams.