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| Newspaper Accounts
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Tuscaloosa News
Published Thursday, August 9, 2007
Police say robber ran 63-year-old victim off road
By Stephanie Taylor
Staff Writer
TUSCALOOSA | Investigators have arrested a young man who they say ran a 63-year-old stranger off the road to rob him for drug money.
Paramedics rescued the man from a Saturn off 25th Avenue East on Monday after the car had wrapped around three trees.
Police began getting calls from tipsters that the wreck was no accident, said Capt. Loyd Baker, commander of the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit. The man is on life support and in critical condition at DCH Regional Medical Center. His name has not been released.
Based on the information received, homicide investigators began looking for three people who were reportedly in a Ford Explorer that ran the man, who was on his way to work at 5:45 a.m., off the road.
Investigators arrested the driver, 23-year-old Samuel Cecil Williamson III of Brookwood.
The male and female who were with him, both 19, were not charged.
Police said Williamson tried to get the victim to stop his car and began yelling at him through the window.
“He did the right thing, he made a sharp, quick right turn and drove away. They pursued him at a high rate of speed and threw two objects at his car," Baker said. “They rammed the back of the car and knocked him off the road.
“The driver goes into the vehicle, steals his wallet and they leave the scene."
Baker believes the three were looking for money to buy drugs.
“There was no relationship between them and the victim," Baker said. “This appears to be a random act of violence to a stranger."
Investigators didn’t have to search long for the three suspects.
An employee working at a fast food restaurant in Tuscaloosa called Tuscaloosa Police on Wednesday to complain that three people had been disorderly in a drive-through line.
Police stopped the Explorer and realized it was the same three people whom investigators were seeking.
Williamson was charged with first-degree assault, leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, first-degree theft and criminal mischief stemming from damage to the victim’s car.
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Unusual Assault Leaves One Injured
WVUA
Kathryn L. Gilmer
August 09, 2007
 A man is behind bars on assault charges in Tuscaloosa County for allegedly injuring a man by running him off the road.
A Tuscaloosa Metro Homicide Unit spokesperson says twenty-three year old Samuel Williamson was driving with two friends on Papermill Road when they tried to solicit money from a sixty-three year old man. The spokesperson says the man refused, and that is when Williamson began chasing the man’s car with his car, eventually running him off the road, causing the victim’s car to hit a tree.
Williamson allegedly entered the man’s car, stole his wallet and left him injured.
Captain Loyd Baker of the Tuscaloosa Metro Homicide Unit says of the crime, “This is a unique crime, in the sense that it’s a random choice of victim. You don’t see this much in this area. These suspects are not from the area where this crime occurred, and they, to my knowledge, had never even seen this victim before.”
No word from investigators on the victim’s name, but they say he is in intensive care at DCH.
Aside from first-degree assault, Samuel Williamson is also charged with criminal mischief, leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, and first-degree theft.
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