Mark Anthony Tony Williams was a 24-year-old Knoxville Police Department officer when he was shot and killed on July 7, 1989. Off-duty and riding his motorcycle near the Interstate 40 and Cherry Street interchange, Williams was struck three times in the back; a fourth bullet hit his motorcycle’s seat. He tried to reach a hospital but crashed after taking the nearest exit.

Two men, Larry Wayne Witt (known as Boot Nose) and Johnnie Edgar Warwick, were arrested early in the inquiry after witnesses reported seeing them and a woman under the interstate in what was suspected to be a drug deal. Warwick was found with a pistol and gave conflicting statements implicating Witt; Witt denied the killing and said he had accidentally shot himself. Ballistics did not tie the guns recovered from either man to the bullets that killed Williams, and murder charges were dropped. Witt remained jailed on unrelated drug and counterfeit charges.

The case later reopened; new forensic work and witness re-interviews were pursued and the Knox County Grand Jury in December 2023 found probable cause that Johnnie Edgar Warwick committed first-degree murder. Warwick had died in federal prison on or about November 1, 2023, and the investigation was closed. Does anyone have information about that night near I-40 and Cherry Street or knew Tony’s routines that could shed light on what happened?