An Army private on leave from service in Afghanistan was fatally shot while on the way home from grocery shopping with his wife, Baltimore police said Monday.
Detectives had no suspects or motive in the slaying of Pfc. Clifford J. Williams, a Baltimore native, said Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman.
Williams, 22, enlisted in the Army in February 2008 and was deployed in April to Afghanistan, where he performed maintenance on planes, said Lt. Col. Nathan M. Banks, an Army spokesman.
He took 15 days of leave to go home for the holidays, Banks said.
"It's a very, very sad case," Banks said. "We always expect to be killed over there. When we come home to American soil, this is rare."
Investigators believe a single gunman approached Williams' sport-utility vehicle and shot him through the driver's side window.
Williams apparently drove some distance after he was shot, stopping about a block away from his home in Southwest Baltimore, and detectives were unable Monday to determine exactly where the shooting took place, a task made more difficult by this weekend's huge snowstorm, Guglielmi said.
photo/CH13
Williams was shot in the upper body and was taken to a local hospital, where he died. His wife, who was in the vehicle when Williams was shot, was cooperating with police, Guglielmi said.
The Army's Criminal Investigation Division will not play an active role in the investigation but will assist Baltimore police with information about the soldier as needed, Banks said.
Williams' slaying was the 228th homicide in Baltimore in 2009, police said. Baltimore recorded 234 homicides in 2008, a 20-year low, but it remains one of the nation's most violent big cities, with about 37 slayings per 100,000 residents. The vast majority of the city's murder victims and suspects have criminal records.
Williams, who had no criminal record, was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, 22nd Aviation Battalion, based at Fort Bragg, N.C. His deployment would have ended in April 2010.
He is survived by his wife, Angel, and 2-year-old son, Clifford Williams Jr.
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