Ten years after a gunman opened fire into a car in Charlotte's Hidden Valley neighborhood and left a 16-year-old girl fighting for her life, her killer has never been convicted, and her mother says she will not stop demanding answers. Ta'Nya Lashay Williams survived nearly eight months after being shot in the head and neck before she died of her injuries, and no one has ever been held accountable for pulling the trigger.
The shooting happened on December 20, 2015, at around 2:30 p.m. in the 1600 block of Vancouver Drive, where a gunman fired into a vehicle carrying Williams, two other 16-year-old girls, and a 26-year-old man, according to WCNC. Williams was left confined to a wheelchair after the shooting and eventually died from her injuries at Carolinas Medical Center on August 10, 2016. Her mother, Tashala Campbell, told WSOC-TV that her daughter wanted justice before she died, calling her “my precious girl.”
In March 2018, a break appeared to come when 20-year-old Arshaun Springs turned himself in to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office and was charged with murder after Charlotte-Mecklenburg police obtained warrants tied to the case. But prosecutors later dropped the charges, citing insufficient evidence, and the man walked free. The case then reverted to open status, eventually landing with CMPD's Cold Case Unit.
A Family That Keeps Showing Up
Williams's family has visited her grave in a north Charlotte cemetery every week for 10 years, the station's report notes. This week was no different, with relatives gathering at the gravesite as the anniversary of the shooting's aftermath weighed on them. Campbell has continued to speak at the grave, telling her daughter, “Mommy's here; always and forever.”
Libby Williams, Ta'Nya's godmother, said she wants updates on whether detectives are actively pursuing the case, according to the same account. The family hopes that speaking publicly, a decade later, will move someone with knowledge of the shooting to finally come forward. Campbell said plainly that the case still matters and that the family will not stop pushing for answers.
A Backlog of Nearly 700 Unsolved Cases
CMPD's Cold Case Unit, created in April 2003, pairs sworn homicide detectives with civilian volunteers, including retired FBI agents and other criminal justice professionals, to re-examine unsolved files, per the U.S. Department of Justice. The unit currently oversees roughly 700 open cold cases dating back to the 1960s, though CMPD notes that figure fluctuates over time. Williams's family wants police to continue searching for whoever is responsible, even as that caseload competes for limited investigative resources.
Under North Carolina General Statutes § 15-1 and state common law, murder carries no statute of limitations, meaning prosecutors remain free to bring new charges whenever sufficient evidence emerges, according to Nolo. That legal reality is cold comfort without new witnesses or evidence, which is exactly what was missing when the case against Springs collapsed. Cases like Williams's illustrate a national pattern: tracking data from Project: Cold Case, cited by Spectrum News, shows that only about 57% of U.S. homicides were solved or cleared by law enforcement between 2013 and 2022.
Recent Cold Case Progress in Charlotte
CMPD's Cold Case Unit has shown it can still break cases years after the fact. In June, detectives identified three suspects in connection with a 2017 homicide, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department announcement, showing that multi-year cases are not necessarily dead ends. CMPD also reported an 8% drop in violent crime across the city during the second quarter of this year in its midyear public safety update.
Anyone with information about the shooting that killed Ta'Nya Williams is asked to contact Crime Stoppers anonymously online or by phone at 704-334-1600, where tips can lead to a cash reward of up to $2,000 for information resulting in an arrest or indictment. Ta'Nya Williams's family, who spoke with Channel 9 crime reporter Hunter Sáenz for the original report, say they are still hoping that call comes in.
