Broncos Cornerback Darrent Williams Killed in Drive-By

Leitch|published: 01/01/2007, 11:56am EST

Sad news out of Denver this morning. AP wire reports:

Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting early Monday, his limousine sprayed with bullets in downtown Denver. Team spokesman Jim Saccomano said police called him about 3 a.m. from the scene and told him three people had been shot, and the 24-year-old Williams had been killed. His death came hours after the Denver Broncos were eliminated from the playoff race.

A little after 2 a.m., a white Hummer limousine was fired on from a vehicle that pulled up along its side, police spokesman Sonny Jackson said. As many as a dozen bullet holes were visible on the driver's side of the vehicle. One window was blown out and four others had bullet holes.

In a haunting bit of irony, DenverPost.com republished an interview with Williams that ran Dec. 3, in which he describes his rough upbringing and how he overcame that to become part of one of the most dominating cornerback tandems in football with Champ Bailey:

Williams: Probably from the time I was 12 until I was 17. I was hanging around the wrong people. I was hanging around gang members. The local Crips had people I called friends... I wasn't really a Crip, or part of any gang, but some people might have thought I was because I was affiliated with some of them.

Denver Post: What pushed you away from that life?

Williams: I went to church one day and the preacher said something about praying every night. He said: "I know a lot of you go home and get drunk or whatever. But even if you don't have a simple life, try every day to pray to the Lord. Get a relationship with Him." And I started doing that. I started praying every day at my home, and even though I wasn't going to church all the time, I started believing more, and I think that's what stopped me from going down the wrong road.

Preacher Put Williams on Right Path [ DenverPost] More: Broncos Williams Shot to Death in Colo. [ HoustonChronicle Video Report About Shooting [ DenverPost/AP Video]