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OAKLAND (AP) — The parents of a woman who was stabbed to death while onlookers cheered are angry they did not discover the victim in the highly publicized case was their daughter until three weeks after the crime. The woman was identified at the time of the stabbing as Diane Wells. But she grew up as Deborah Leann Williams, child of former Black Panther party members Randy and Mary Williams. Law enforcement officials in the confusion was due to Debora Williams having used different names and social security numbers. Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. James Knudsen said the father of the woman's three children was notified on Aug. 25 and authorities have been waiting Williams, 32, was chased down and killed by another woman as a group of onlookers yelled “kill her, kill her,” police said, to hear from him about funeral ar rangements. boyfriend called Williams’ parents last week and they held a memorial service Thursday, followed by an eight-block march to the scene of the Aug. 11 attack. Williams, 32, was chased down and killed by another woman as a group of onlookers yelled ‘‘kill her, kill her,” police said. A 19-year-old woman, who told police she saw Williams smoking crack cocaine in her apartment building, was charged with murder in the at tack. William’s sister, Teresa Williams, a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley said her sister had tried to overcome a drug dependency, but failed. “I saw Deborah two years ago when we tried to get custody of the kids,”’ she said. ‘‘(Child Protective Services) said they would get her into rehab, but then they said they trusted her and gave her back her kids. She got her welfare check and she was gone.’ Family members said there were happier times. In 1974, Williams was the first graduate of the East Oakland Community Learning Center, a Black Panther elementary school. But one family member said that the parents’ involvement in civil rights issues may not have been led to involuntary neglect of the children. ‘We were all struggling at that time, and I don’t think any of us had any idea what the children were going through,”’ said Jan Gates Williams, who is married to Williams’ uncle, Landon Williams, another former Black Panther. Family members were not given permission to claim Williams’ body Thursday, but Knudsen said he would work with them now that they are known. The family also indicated it would seek custody of Williams’ three children.
Newspaper Details
Eureka Times Standard
Eureka, California, US
Sat, Sep 04, 1993
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Amanda B.
USA 29 Aug 2026
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