The woman shot at 1441 G St. on March 24 had gone to the apartment building to meet a man she'd been talking with on Facebook.
Instead, police say, she was ambushed by an ex-boyfriend who had created a Facebook account under the name John Smith.
Roy L. Williams, 46, of York was arrested Tuesday in St. Louis, where he has relatives, said Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood. An arrest warrant on charges of attempted first-degree murder and felony use of a weapon was issued Monday in Lancaster County Court for Williams, who will be extradited to Lincoln later, she said.
On March 24, the 41-year-old Stromsburg woman went to the downtown Lincoln apartment building about 9:30 p.m., police said. As she climbed the stairs to what she thought was John Smith's apartment, Flood said, she heard a noise. She told police she turned and saw an unknown man in dark clothing.
He fired a handgun four times, hitting her three times. She was released after treatment for injuries to her legs and bladder, Flood said.
According to the arrest warrant for Williams, an officer contacted him near Goodhue Boulevard and D Street 39 minutes after the shooting was reported. At the time, police were going off vague descriptions given by people who saw a man run from the G Street apartment building, Flood said.
And, she said, police did not then know Williams' relationship to the victim.
When asked by police at BryanLGH Medical Center West if she had any idea who would shoot her, she said no, according to the arrest warrant. But when asked if she had recently broken up with anyone, she told police she broke up with Williams in early February.
The arrest warrant says the shooting happened three days after the victim got a request on Facebook to be friends with a 39-year-old man named John Smith. The man said in early messages that he'd recently moved from Kansas City to Lincoln, was single and "looking for friends." In later messages, he told her he had recently ended a relationship, too.
Investigators traced the messages to a home in York, where a woman described as Williams' girlfriend said she had lived with him for two years.
The woman told police she helped Williams set up the John Smith Facebook account but didn't know his motives for creating it. She has not been arrested.
The tenant of the apartment to which the victim was directed in Lincoln had nothing to do with the shooting, Flood said.
Based on additional information gathered during the investigation, police believe Williams made a call to 911 on March 25, the day after the shooting.
"I just want to say something," the caller said, according to the arrest warrant. "That lady that got shot last night in that apartment building. She was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. That was not meant for her."
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Originally Posted by CasperGirl
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