On May 13, 2023, at about 11:13 P.M., 19-year-old Dontravius Williams was found dead from apparent gunshot wounds in the 500 block of Avoyelles Drive in Alexandria, Louisiana. Officers who responded to reports of shots fired discovered his body and opened an investigation into the homicide.

Detectives appealed to the public for information and pursued leads for several weeks. On June 1, 2023, the Alexandria Police Department’s Detective Division arrested 18-year-old Brian Johnson of Alexandria and charged him with Second Degree Murder and Unlawful Possession of a Machine Gun. Johnson had already been in the Rapides Parish Detention Center after his May 26, 2023 arrest on two counts of Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon. The investigation into Williams’s killing remained ongoing.

A memorial service for Dontravius was held May 26, 2023, at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Alexandria. If anyone has information about the night of May 13 or the events leading up to it, please come forward.