Devictor Ouedraogo harassed J train riders before stabbing: wild video
Here are the images that convinced a grand jury to not send Jordan Williams to prison.
The shocking still photos come from a video obtained by The Post showing Devictor Ouedraogo, an unhinged straphanger, harassing riders and attacking Williams and his girlfriend in the moments before Williams fatally stabbed him.
The video was shown to grand jurors, who refused to indict Williams, 20, of manslaughter on Wednesday.
The footage was taken by several unnamed passengers — at least one of whom testified before the grand jury — and appears to have been compiled from multiple videos of the same event.
The 1-minute, 27-second clip opens with a shirtless Ouedraogo, 36, getting in the face of a seated woman riding the Brooklyn J train near Marcy Avenue.
He appears to touch her wrist.
“Stop it,” the woman says pushing him away.
Ouedraogo, undeterred, begins gyrating his hips and leers at the woman.
“You understand what I’m saying to you,” he says — smacking his lips.
The woman says again, “Stop it,” as Ouedraogo is joined by an unnamed sidekick wearing a denim vest and camouflage pants.
The other man mumbles something unintelligible before picking up Ouedraogo’s striped shirt.
Ouedraogo served time in state prison in 2009 for an attempted robbery in Queens.
Train passengers reported that Ouedraogo said he was “going to erase someone” and had asked Williams’ girlfriend, “Want to f–k?” before the stabbing.
These comments are not seen in the video clip.
After about 20 seconds, the video cuts to a brawl.
As passengers scramble to get away from the melee, Ouedraogo seems to strike at a woman in a tan sundress with fur-topped sandals — later identified as Williams’ girlfriend.
“Don’t f–king touch her you piece of s–t,” an unnamed woman screams off camera.
Williams — wearing a navy-blue high school basketball shirt with his name on it — then grapples with Ouedraogo while pressed against the subway bench.
Ouedraogo seems to put his hands around Williams’s neck and Williams appears to reach for a folding knife.
“Get your f–king hands off of him,” the same unnamed woman shouts.
The video pans to the floor for several seconds amid the confusion.
When the view moves up again Ouedraogo is already stabbed — blood pouring from his abdomen, his shirt stained a deep red.
A stunned Ouedraogo slowly moves backward, away from Williams, toward the rear of the car. He eventually slips quietly into the next train car.
“I just stabbed that n—-r,” Williams says.
“You just stab him? Holy s–t. You gonna go to jail,” says Ouedraogo’s unidentified cohort.
Williams’s girlfriend retorts, “No, you’re going to go to jail.”
She then picks up a red baseball hat Williams had been wearing which was knocked off during the scuffle.
Ouedraogo got off the train at Marcy Ave and collapsed on the platform. He was found by police responding to a 911 call around 8 p.m.
He was rushed to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he later died.
Jason Goldman, a high-powered attorney who represents Williams, said his client was happy the matter has been settled.
Williams had faced 25 years in prison.
A legal defense fund raised more than $120,000 for the Queens resident.
The shocking video “speaks for itself and simply supports what witnesses had told me from day one regarding the chaotic scene on that train ride,” Goldman said. “Jordan is grateful for the result and has a limitless future ahead of him.”
Williams has no prior criminal history. He was fired from FedEx after the initial story broke and has so far not been hired back, Goldman said.
“We are not sharing additional information concerning Mr. Williams’ employment and refer all remaining questions to the investigating authorities,” a company spokesman said.
Williams’ effort to fight back drew national attention.
While subway crime is down 20% from last year’s levels, a string of violent incidents has left New Yorkers unnerved.
The number of people caught with illegal knives in the subway has also skyrocketed 60% since last year, The Post reported last week.
“I’m ecstatic,” his dad, James Williams, said after the charges were dropped. “I am very thankful to everybody’s energy and everything that has transpired to clear my son’s name so he can continue to live his life and move forward.”
A similar NYC subway killing with a far different legal outcome has also made national headlines.
Former Marine Daniel Penny is currently facing manslaughter charges for his role in the death of Jordan Neely, a violent subway vagrant who reportedly threatened passengers.
Penny is scheduled to be arraigned on manslaughter charges Wednesday.
Williams’ mother has compared her son to the Marine — but some experts said the cases differed.
“Williams is a lot different. The deceased in [his] case was actually physical with other passengers,” said Imran Ansari, a New York defense attorney. Ansari previously represented Jose Alba — a bodega worker who was briefly facing murder charges after dispatching an attacker in self-defense.
Unlike the Williams and Alba cases — Neely didn’t assault anyone on the train.
“With Penny, Neely . . . is maybe exclaiming these sort of things indicative of a mental health crisis, but he didn’t get physical with anyone on the train — and he didn’t get physical with Penny,” Ansari said.
However, passengers recalled Neely making threatening statements including saying that “I’ll hurt anyone on this train.” Penny has said Neely “would have killed somebody” if he had acted on his violent threat.
A legal defense fund created on Penny’s behalf has raised more than $2.9 million. Penny’s defense team has said any extra funds will go to programs for the mentally ill.
Read the full article Here