A woman was killed last year in an unsolved homicide case after being caught in the crossfire of a disagreement in which she had no involvement in 2015.
Janae L. Williams, 37, died in August in a rehabilitation center of a gunshot wound to her head in the early hours of Jan. 15, 2015, on the 500 block of Schuylkill Street outside the Royal Pub pub. Eventually, the bar shuttered permanently.
PennLive learned about her death after studying 2024 coroner reports that were made public earlier this year. Her parents declined to respond.
Williams lived in a house on North Sixth Street, not far from where she was shot.
She had just gotten off work and stopped at the Royal Pub on the corner of Sixth and Schuylkill streets to buy something before being shot at 12:27 a.m., according to Commissioner Thomas Carter.
“The young lady who got shot this morning had nothing to do with anything that was going on in that area,” Carter informed the audience. “She’s a completely innocent victim.”
She exited the bar with a buddy and was shot while walking behind it, near an alley. That’s when gunfire erupted. A lady who called 911 to report the gunshot stated, “There was a fight.”
A month after the shooting, Brandon Raye, 31, was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, and firearm crimes. He allegedly shot a gun outside the Royal Pub that night, and his activities were captured on surveillance footage.
While police initially suspected him of shooting Williams, a thorough examination of the ammunition, his gun, and shell casings revealed he did not, according to District Attorney Fran Chardo.
According to Chardo, Raye fired a .40-caliber handgun, but the bullet that struck Williams was of a different caliber.
“Someone else shot her,” Chardo admitted.
Raye was charged with attempted homicide and aggravated assault, which were dropped. Raye was not legally permitted to possess a gun; thus, he pleaded guilty to a firearms charge. He also pled guilty to recklessly endangering another person by shooting a gun at or near others.
A judge sentenced him to four to ten years in prison, and he was released on August 23, 2023, one year before Williams’ death.
Raye cannot face additional charges as a result of her death because his previous crimes are not covered in a law that authorizes prosecutors to prosecute someone with felony murder if they die while committing a crime.
However, if police can identify the second gunman or shooters and determine which round struck Williams, prosecutors may file homicide charges.
PennLive’s question to Chardo regarding the delayed death caused him to revisit the case to determine who killed Williams.
Witnesses with information who did not come forward immediately after the 2015 shooting may be in a better position to discuss what they know with police, officials say.
Anyone with information should contact the county’s criminal investigation section at 717-780-6200, where the original Harrisburg case detective is now employed.
We will add the homicide to the 2015 tally, increasing the total to 20 killings from 23 last year.
Williams’ postmortem report stated that she suffered skull fractures during the shooting, necessitating the use of cranial hardware that became contaminated. She has also dealt with a number of additional medical concerns related to her paraplegia, such as hip infection, traumatic brain injury, strokes, seizures, nutritional inadequacies, and chronic discomfort.
Williams was cared for by her mother and sister until 2023, when they left her in the hands of a home health provider for one week. According to the coroner’s report, Williams’ condition worsened, with 18 bedsores and a blood infection. She was transferred to the hospital and subsequently to the rehabilitation center.
Nursing personnel found her deceased about 5:30 a.m. on August 20, according to the autopsy report. Her obituary mentioned that she was the mother of three children. Her youngest child was two years old, while the oldest was approximately ten years old at the time of her shooting.
She graduated from Harrisburg High School in 2006 and worked at Shari’s Berries warehouse in Mechanicsburg before being shot in 2015, according to her obituary.
Williams’ favorite color was purple, and she loved cooking, driving, going for walks, traveling, and, “most importantly, spending time with her children,” according to her obituary.
Her passing has left a “void her loved ones will never be able to heal,” according to the obituary.
