Indiantown, FL — A 32-year-old mother was home with her child on Tuesday, Aug. 11, when her angry ex-boyfriend came into their house and shot her dead. The woman, Maribel Rosado-Morales had a ten-year-old daughter who was at home, participating in a virtual classroom that morning.
The ex-boyfriend, Donald Williams, Jr., 27, arrived and started shouted at Morales from outside the house. Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said, “There was some type of argument. He went in and confronted her with something to do with a video.”
Williams grew more angry, even “enraged” according to Snyder as the argument went on. Eventually he pulled out a gun and shot Rosado-Morales. Her ten-year-old daughter sat on her computer, logged into a Zoom meeting for her online classroom.
The girl’s teacher reported that she heard the argument starting and knew ‘something was up.’ She muted the classroom so that the other kids didn’t hear Donald Williams Jr’s words to Morales. Then she saw the ten-year-old cover her ears — presumably when the gunshot went off. After that, the girls screen went dark.
Officer Snyder reported that was because the girl’s computer was hit by a stray bullet.
After shooting his ex-girlfriend, Williams allegedly “got on a bicycle and went to a nearby laundromat and then boarded a community … bus.”
Thankfully, the bus driver was observant, and she noticed an odd bag that Williams was holding — and that Williams was acting jumpy. The bus driver pulled over and called 911, and the police immediately connect that this is the man they were already looking for in connection to the shooting in Indiantown. The Martin County Sheriff’s SWAT team responded and took Williams into custody.
He will be charged at a later date.
The Great Equalizer
If Morales had the time, she might have been able to call the police when an angry Donald Williams Jr. burst into her house. Of course, that assumes the police still exist and haven’t been replaced by social workers.
What’s worse, online data reports the average police response time to a violent crime 911 call averages between 6 and 10 minutes. That’s a long time for Morales to wait — especially if an anger management counselor is the only person coming.
Moralez would have been far better served to have had a gun on her person. The odds would have been dramatically different, and she might be here to hug her daughter tonight.
As it is, a violent thug broke the gun laws –don’t murder people– and an innocent woman paid the price. Gun control would have been just one more law on the list of laws Williams already broke that day.
Carry every day, and train like your life depends on it.