‘It Could Have Been Me’ Longtime Resident Shocked by Violence

A week before Nathan Allen crashed a box truck into a house on the corner of Shirley and Cross Streets and then executed two Black residents, lifelong Winthrop resident Anthony Williams was at the baseball field just a few steps away coaching Little League.

“I wasn’t in Winthrop the day of the shooting, but if it happened a week earlier I would have been at the baseball field coaching,” said Williams. “For the past two months I was walking through that area around that time.”

When Williams heard the news, he was shocked because things like what happened Saturday just don’t happen in Winthrop.

“I lived here for 39 years and nothing like this has ever happened,” said Williams.

However, when news started to spread that Allen targeted Air Force veteran Ramona Cooper and retired Massachusetts State Police trooper David Green because they were Black, Williams was frightened.

“It could have been me,” said Williams, who is Black and a member of the Town’s Diversity Committee. “After I had those initial emotions of sadness for the victims, I started to think about how many times I have walked by this guy with my kids and not known it or how many times I was in the same place in Town as him.”

When Suffolk County DA Rachael Rollins announced that investigators found racist, anti-semitic and other xenophobic material in Allen’s apartment after the shooting. It became clear to Williams the Town he’s called home his entire life is not immune to the racial divide that has gripped the country.

“Once that news came out it was obviously very personal to me because I’m Black,” said Williams. “It really hit home. This was serious, this was stuff that you see on TV that you don’t think would ever happen in Winthrop. You think a town like Winthrop is immune to it but we’re not. There are haters everywhere.”

However, Williams cautioned that Allen was in no way representative of the community he loves and the people he grew up with.

“You start to think about the community as a whole and there’s a ton of great people and I grew up with a ton of great people,” said Williams. “And this guy, he wasn’t from Winthrop. He lived in Winthrop but he wasn’t born and raised here. I was born and raised in Winthrop and people here are not like that.”

Since the shooting Williams has been learning about the victims and feels a connection to victim Trooper Green.

“The thing that kind of touched me a little bit was after I started learning about Trooper Green I learned we kind of had the same upbringing,” said Williams. “His family, like mine, was one of the only black families in Winthrop when he was growing up. He went to Winthrop High School like me, he played sports–so it really kind of hit home. To think both Trooper Green and Staff Sergeant Cooper gave their lives to the public and this is what they get in return.”

Williams said he will attend Thursday evening’s vigil and is positive the best of Winthrop will shine.

“Just watch, the people that will come out Thursday night will be the true representation of the Town I know,” he said.