Darryl Tyree Williams

Darryl “Tyree” Williams, 32, died in Raleigh, North Carolina police custody on January 17, 2023, after officers on a “proactive patrol” approached him sitting in his parked car outside a sweepstakes parlor and, suspecting drug possession, tried to arrest him. Williams ran, fell, and was tased repeatedly — by some accounts three to four times — while telling officers he had a heart condition, audible on the body camera footage later released. He went into cardiac arrest and died at the hospital. The state medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, attributing it to sudden cardiac arrest amid cocaine intoxication, physical exertion, Taser use, and physical restraint together. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman announced in June 2023 that the officers' actions did not violate the law and that prosecution was “unsustainable.” The City of Raleigh settled a federal civil rights lawsuit with Williams's family for $975,000 in December 2025. No one has ever been charged in Williams's death.

Raleigh, NC · Wake County

• 2023: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The proactive-patrol stop, the foot chase, and the repeated Taser deployments, per Raleigh Police Department body and dash camera footage released publicly and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation's findings.
• Officers approached Williams and a passenger sitting in a parked car near closed businesses on Rock Quarry Road around 2 a.m.; after finding a folded dollar bill with an unidentified substance on Williams, they attempted to arrest him for suspected drug possession.
• Williams ran, fell to the ground, and was tased multiple times by officers while resisting having his arms placed behind his back; released video captured him telling officers repeatedly that he had a heart condition.
• The North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Williams's death a homicide, listing the cause as sudden cardiac arrest in the setting of cocaine intoxication, physical exertion, conducted energy weapon (Taser) use, and physical restraint.
• Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman announced on June 21, 2023 that the officers' actions did not violate North Carolina law and that continued prosecution was “unsustainable,” declining to bring charges against any of the officers involved.
• Six officers involved in the encounter were placed on administrative leave following Williams's death.
• Williams's family, represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the organization Emancipate NC, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2024 seeking $25 million, described as the largest amount ever sought in a Raleigh in-custody death case; the City of Raleigh settled the suit for $975,000 in December 2025.

• Whether the combined use of repeated Taser deployments and physical restraint against someone who had disclosed a heart condition was a substantial cause of Williams's death, as the medical examiner's homicide ruling and contributing-factors finding suggested, or whether his death was primarily attributable to his own physical exertion and drug use, as the district attorney's declination implied, was never independently tested at any criminal trial since none was brought.
• Why a death officially ruled a homicide by the state's own medical examiner did not result in criminal charges against any officer has not been reconciled beyond the district attorney's general statement that prosecution was unsustainable.
• The specific internal disciplinary outcomes, if any, for the six officers placed on administrative leave have not been made comprehensively public.

• ABC11 Raleigh-Durham (WTVD) — “No charges to be filed against officers in death Darryl Williams while in Raleigh police custody”
• WRAL — “Wake DA: No charges for police officers who shocked man outside sweepstakes parlor”
• WUNC — “City of Raleigh settles for nearly $1 million in police Taser death of Darryl Williams”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs