Charges against officer Darry Williams include kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is working to find out why a veteran Brunswick police officer held three people hostage in a vacant office space at an apartment complex Wednesday.

Police said Darry Williams had been discussing personnel issues with police Capt. Kevin Jones before he went to City Hall determined to talk with Mayor Coell Harvey. But Williams took off before that conversation took place, and according to police, the situation escalated very quickly after that.

Harvey spoke Thursday about what happened. He pointed out that once someone steps through the doors of the Brunswick City Hall building, finding the mayor isn't tough at all.

"That's done by design," Harvey said. "We want people to know we're here for them. We are not trying to be an office that's way off where you have to go to too many doors to get to me. ... There are (risks), but we take a risk every time we walk out of our house."

Harvey had no idea he'd be taking a risk Wednesday when Williams came by, asking to speak with him about some personnel issues. Harvey had someone in his office, so he stepped out to say a few words to Williams, who he said appeared very agitated.

"I asked him to sit down and wait for me while I finished with the other person," Harvey said. "A couple minutes later, I looked back and he had departed. He had left."

Before he left, City Hall employees heard him say he had a gun and that they had 10 minutes to send the SWAT team, according to police. City Hall was immediately placed on lockdown, and all city employees gathered in a room. But Williams had already left, police said.

A short time later, police were called to the Norwich Commons Apartments at 3400 Norwich St., where Williams had locked himself inside a vacant office with three hostages, police said. Williams fired two shots from a TEK 9 machine pistol, police said. One bullet went into an interior wall and one went through the outside glass door.

"We are developing a substation in that complex. His title was a community officer, and he would have worked out of that complex," Interim Brunswick Police Chief Jimmy Carter said. "But the motive for going there, I don't want to guess and I'll stay away from."

Police said Williams eventually let each hostage go, and no one was hurt.

Williams made one of the women remove her clothing, but the other two hostages refused to strip down. After the two women were released, Williams put the gun on the floor, the male hostage picked it up and walked out the door to safety, dropping the gun outside.

SWAT officers then entered the room and took Williams into custody without incident. But as he was being escorted to the squad car, Williams became violent and kicked several officers. Three suffered minor injuries.

"Most of the time, somebody don't walk away (in these cases). Most of the time, there's hostages lives that are lost or seriously injured and a lot of times followed by suicide," Carter said. "We lucked out. Our officers responded properly. They handled it properly."

Carter said currently the charges against Williams include three counts of assault, one count of kidnapping and three counts of false imprisonment. Other charges could be pending, Carter said.

Williams worked for BPD from 1993 to 2005, achieving the rank of lieutenant. He served overseas for several years and was then re-hired as a community services officers for BPD in December 2013.

"We can play the what-if game all day long," Harvey said. "If we played the what-if game, it would always have different outcomes. I'm just happy the individual is safe and the citizens are safe, the hostages are safe, and that it came out to a positive end.

"This is not a black eye for Brunswick, it's just something that happened. Things can happen anywhere. We realize that, but it's how you deal with situations that are presented."

The mayor said he is offering counseling to city employees at City Hall as they reflect on what happened and what could have happened.