On January 2, 2016, 60-year-old Keith Joseph Williams of Mechanicsville was fatally shot during a large organized deer hunt in the Suggetts Point area of Richmond County. Williams, an employee of Hanover County Public Utilities since 1994 and an avid outdoorsman who also provided meat for Hunters for the Hungry, was struck in the chest and pelvis by buckshot when another hunter, 45-year-old Wavely Alphonso Veney Jr. of Washington D.C., discharged a 12-gauge shotgun after reportedly mistaking Williams for a deer. Both men were wearing blaze orange.

Williams was airlifted to VCU Medical Center but died of his injuries. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries investigated and Veney was arrested and booked at the Northern Neck Regional Jail without bond on charges that included involuntary manslaughter, reckless handling of a firearm, attempting to take a deer unlawfully, hunting without proper licenses, and violating a protective order. Williams is remembered as a faithful caregiver to his mother, a fiancé, and a passionate hunter and fisherman.

Does anyone have information about the Suggetts Point hunt that day or about Williams’ participation in organized hunts in that area?