After a Violent Childhood, How Did Will Make It?

At the time, it seemed like just another fight.

The adults burst into the living room. His mother was hysterical, screaming out the window, begging neighbors to call the police.

Will sat quietly on the steps by the front door. His brother Tony was silent, standing against a wall with his head down. Williams was blocking the door, the only way out. He didn't say a word as he took out a small black gun and began loading bullets into the clip. Jacqueline Kellibrew kept screaming. Will rolled a small toy car along a step.

Even then, he didn't know enough to be scared, he said. He had seen people brandish guns and make threats but had never seen one fired.

Everything happened quickly. Williams walked over to his mother, Kellibrew said, put the gun to her face and shot her twice. She dropped to the floor. He and his brother didn't move. It was the quietest thing, Kellibrew said.

Then Williams went over to Tony, whose head was still down. He shot him twice. "I watched him pull the trigger," Kellibrew said. His brother buckled and fell to the ground, his knees together. A fountain of blood was shooting from the back of his neck.

Will was thinking: Get ready. "I knew I was next." Williams went back to Jacqueline Kellibrew and shot her. When he walked over to Will, squatted and held the gun a finger's length away, Will suddenly knew how much he wanted to live.

He looked at Williams and said: "Please don't hurt me. Please don't hurt me. I'll do anything!"

Williams didn't respond.

Will threw his head back and prayed, yelling, "Please, God, don't let him kill me!"

For a minute, maybe -- an eternity -- he begged for his life. Then he heard a click. Williams turned away, took a few steps and said something that he couldn't quite understand. It sounded like, "You can go call the police."

Will was too scared to move at first. Then he crept to the door. Put his hand on the knob. Unlocked the door. Opened it a crack. The blood was still gushing from his brother's neck. He stepped out carefully, thinking about the gun inside.