A 43-year-old Buffalo man pleaded guilty Friday to 12 criminal counts — including attempted murder — after shooting a store clerk, firing at a police officer, and carjacking a vehicle during an April armed robbery. Dejuan L. Williams, also known as Juan Quionos, faces 20 years to life at sentencing in November. The stake for ordinary Americans: Williams was already walking the streets after a knife assault just 11 days earlier.
On April 4, Williams struck someone with a knife on Tacoma Avenue, injuring the victim's arm badly enough to require hospital treatment at ECMC. Eleven days later, on April 15, he walked into a convenience store at Prospect Avenue and Connecticut Street in Buffalo with an illegal firearm, shot a 24-year-old clerk in the upper leg while trying to steal cash and cigarettes, then opened the door and fired at a Buffalo police officer who had arrived as a customer. The second officer returned fire, injuring Williams. He fled, carjacked a vehicle, and crashed into multiple parked cars before being taken into custody. A weapon was recovered from the parking lot. The clerk was treated and released. Neither officer was injured.
Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane said Williams entered the plea before Judge Jessica Kulpit without receiving a reduced plea offer. The DA's office previously determined both officers' actions were justified. Williams remains held without bail.
No reduced plea offer is the bare minimum — not a victory. The question isn't whether Williams was eventually held accountable. It's why a man with a knife assault on April 4 was free to commit an armed robbery, shoot a clerk, fire at police, and carjack a stranger by April 15. Who decided the streets were safer with him on them? Erie County's DA office has offered no explanation, and syracuse.com's report raises none.
The pattern is national. In Reading, Pennsylvania, Vincent Sanchez, 35, was just convicted of first-degree murder for shooting an acquaintance in a midday downtown confrontation in July 2023. Sanchez fled after the killing and wasn't apprehended until May 2024 — nine months later, and only after Reading police partnered with the U.S. Marshals Service to track him down in New York. He faces mandatory life without parole. In Columbia County, Arkansas, 75-year-old Eddie Grainger was charged Sunday with second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse after the body of 58-year-old Brian Wright was found near Walkerville. Grainger is being held with no bond set.
Three jurisdictions, three violent defendants — and in every case, the system only acted after blood was spilled. Williams had an illegal gun and a prior knife attack on his record within two weeks. Sanchez killed a man in broad daylight and evaded capture for the better part of a year. The citizens who were shot, stabbed, and killed paid the price for a justice system that treats incarceration as a last resort and public safety as an afterthought.
Williams will be sentenced in November. The clerk he shot, the officer he fired at, and the driver he carjacked will carry the consequences far longer. How many more Dejuan Williamses are out there right now, waiting for their next victim?
