Today in History: LAPD North Hollywood Detective Gunned Down in Cold Blood

Oct. 31, 1985, was a dark day in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department.

On that day, Detective Thomas C. Williams, who worked at the North Hollywood Division, was gunned down in a hail of bullets in front of his 6-year-old son as he picked the boy up from a day care center in Canoga Park.

Williams' murder was not a coincidence, or a random act. He was murdered by a man he had testified against in court only hours before. The man, Daniel Jenkins, followed Williams from court that day and shot him eight times with an Uzi. According to the LAPD, the last thing Williams did before being shot was to tell his son to duck, saving his life.

The case was in the news again this year when one of Jenkins' co-conspirators was up for parole, prompting the Los Angeles City Council to unanimously vote in favor of recommending that parole be denied. Voltaire Williams was denied parole.

The City News service covered the story of Williams' parole in 2009, which summed up the case:

City News Service
March 19, 2009

A state panel denied parole today for a man convicted of conspiracy in the Halloween 1985 shooting death of a Los Angeles police detective who was ambushed while picking up his 6-year-old son from day care.

Voltaire Alphonse Williams will be eligible for another parole hearing in two years, according to Deputy District Attorney Larry Morrison. Williams was convicted of conspiracy in the plot to kill Los Angeles Police Department Detective Thomas C. Williams, who was not related to him.

The 42-year-old police detective was shot while he was picking up his son at a Canoga Park day care center on Oct. 31, 1985, after testifying in a robbery case against Daniel Jenkins. The detective's son was not hit by the gunfire.

Williams was sentenced in April 1989 to 25 years to life in state prison. Co-defendant Jenkins was sentenced in October 1988 to death row for the murder, and a third man, Ruben Moss, was sentenced in December 1988 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Los Angeles Police Protective League President Paul M. Weber praised the decision. "It is crucial to the security of the state of California and to the safety of the men and women who enforce its laws, that killers forfeit their freedom for life when they murder a law enforcement officer,'' said Weber, whose group represents the Los Angeles Police Department's officers and had opposed granting parole to Williams.

"Voltaire Williams participated in the callous and calculating murder of Detective Williams. It was a murder designed to prevent Detective Williams from doing his job."