Nearly three years after the death of University of Tampa student Ryan McCall, a suspect has been charged with his murder.
Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor announced at a news conference Wednesday, May 30 that 22-year-old David Earl Williams Jr. is responsible for McCall’s death. Police dubbed Williams a “career criminal,” and according to state records he has been arrested 30 times since the age of 11.
UT Dean of Students Stephanie Russell Krebs was at the conference that Wednesday, and described the overall emotion as “bittersweet.”
“You’re happy for [McCall’s] family so they can have some sense of closure, but it still doesn’t take the pain away from not having Ryan there on a daily basis.”
Police say Williams had been out of prison only 27 days before he killed McCall in 2009. He then went on a crime spree, robbing and burglarizing around the West Tampa area before going back to prison a few weeks later.
“When repeat offenders are committing heinous crimes it is really frustrating,” Krebs said. “I think anytime you think something could be foreseeable, you wish something could have been done to stop it.”
McCall was walking home from the Retreat Lounge with friend Michael Harahan on August 19, 2009 when police say Williams jumped out from the bushes near the corner of West Palm St. and robbed them, shooting McCall to death before taking off on foot.
Detectives labeled Williams as a person of interest in the case two weeks after McCall was killed through an extensive series of interviews and forensic analyses, but they never had enough evidence to charge him.
Until two weeks ago, when Williams admitted to police he confronted McCall and Harahan that night in 2009 and robbed them, but said someone else shot McCall. However there was never any record of another person involved in the crime, leading police to charge Williams with the murder, confident he is the one responsible.
UT grad Jayme Krapf is from McCall’s hometown of Downingtown, PA and said he and Ryan knew each other growing up. Krapf also described his reaction to the news as “bittersweet”, but he’s also angry. “To see the kind of scum that [Williams] was and he was still on the street, something like that was bound to happen,” Krapf said. “I’m kind of pissed off. I hope he goes back to jail and never comes out again.”
Williams is currently serving time in Miami for unrelated charges and it could take some time before police can transfer him back to Tampa. And while the McCall family is feeling a sense of closure the investigation is coming to an end, Ryan’s older brother Kevin says their main goal has always been to keep his brother’s name alive.
“Through the wrongs that we do, the scholarships that we give out and the stories we continue to tell about Ryan, that does keep him alive,” Kevin said at the conference. “So that is our goal as a family: to continue to live what Ryan wanted to live.”
Joshua Napier can be reached at joshua.napier90@gmail.com.