Man charged with first-degree murder

FORT SMITH — Sebastian County prosecutors charged a man Monday with first-degree murder in a Dec. 1 shooting death.

Hakim Raekwon Williams, 19, of Fort Smith was charged with the class Y felony in Circuit Court, according to a news release from Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue.

Williams was arrested in Van Buren on Thursday in connection with the shooting death of Jeremiah Tabut, 19, as well as other warrants, according to a Friday news release from Fort Smith police. Williams fled from law enforcement in Fort Smith and abandoned his vehicle in the 1000 block of Rickey Circle in Van Buren, police said.

Officers discovered Tabut had been shot and taken via private vehicle to a local hospital after responding to a call of a shooting at Rock Creek Apartments at 3020 N. 50th St. in Fort Smith on Dec. 1, a probable cause affidavit for Williams states. Police interviewed the three people who took Tabut to the hospital. All three denied seeing who shot him, but detectives received tips Williams was involved.

One of the people police interviewed Dec. 1 returned to the department Dec. 3, according to the affidavit. He said he initially lied out of fear for his life and the lives of others, but he wanted to be truthful. The person said he was in the parking lot when Tabut was shot, the affidavit states. The witness said he saw Williams get out of a parked, black car with black rims. After a verbal altercation, Williams shoot at Tabut six or seven times with an AK-47 pistol, according to the witness. Tabut was hit twice and later died from his injuries.

After officers got additional information from a second witness Dec. 3, the Police Department’s intelligence unit monitored social media postings and identified Williams from his Facebook page holding an AK-47 pistol, according to the affidavit.

A $ 500,000 cash bond for Williams was authorized when his warrant of arrest was issued, according to Shue. Williams will be arraigned on his first-degree murder charge at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.