PALMER, Alaska (KTUU/Gray News) – A family in Alaska is mourning the loss of their son who was shot and killed while working at an area gas station over Labor Day weekend.
Donald and Tanya Williams, the father and stepmother of Steven Williams, 22, said they are devastated.
“[We] didn’t want to believe it was true,” Donald Williams said.
The Williams described their son as a good, kind-hearted person who would do anything for anyone and that his life was just getting started.
“Still can’t believe it’s true,” Tanya Williams said.
According to police, Steven Williams was working overnight Monday at a Speedway Express gas station in Palmer as a clerk when a man armed with a gun entered the store around 12:30 a.m. and started shooting.
The gunman, later identified as 22-year-old Isaac Beshaw, confessed to shooting Steven Williams after police said they found him later in a nearby parking lot.
Donald Williams said he doesn’t understand why something like this could have happened.
“Honestly, there’s no reason for it, but I want to know why,” he said.
Authorities said Beshaw told them that he scouted the area and waited for customers to leave before he shot Steven Williams multiple times.
Beshaw said the two had been feuding for years and that Steven Williams had made indirect threats toward him the night before.
According to charging documents, Beshaw wrote that he “decided to go out of his way to get rid of the drama at its source by ending Williams’ life.”
Officers shared that they found Steven Williams’ body behind the cash register along with nine bullet casings throughout the gas station.
Beshaw is facing charges that include first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
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