Carjacking Overachiever Convicted

Broad & Liberty ran my piece on a carjacking overachiever.

You can read the piece via the link below of the text below:

Paul Davis: Carjacking overachiever convicted 

Carjacking is a heinous crime, I’ve been told by both victims and cops. 

The victims lose their car, the second most valuable possession after their house, and are robbed by wild and excited criminals who are waving a gun at them. 

After the carjacking, the victims feel utterly violated. They are thankful they were not shot and killed in the carjacking, but they are shaken by thinking of what could have happened. It is even worse, cops have told me, if the victims’ children were in the car.

Cops have also told me that most carjackers are teenagers looking for excitement and the street reputation that comes from being a gun-toting thug. One detective told me that by pulling off a carjacking, the teenagers think it makes them a tough guy, a real man.

You want to be a tough guy, I’d ask a teenage carjacker? Go box in the ring, like I did when I was a teenager. You want to wield a firearm? Join the military, like I did at seventeen. You want to truly be a man? Get a job. Support your family by working long, tough hours. 

That, in my view, is what makes a real man. Waving a gun that you don’t know how to use properly and threatening some poor victim certainly does not make you a man.    

But I doubt that my giving a stern speech to carjackers would get through to them. Cops have tried this, they tell me, and they say that the teenage thugs don’t hear them. They want to live the thug life and carjacking is a quick and easy crime that doesn’t require much planning or effort.

One particular teenage carjacker of note was an overachiever. He was recently convicted of three carjackings in the course of one hour.              

On March 7, Acting United States Attorney Nelson S.T. Thayer, Jr. announced that Symair Carson-Williams, a/k/a “Lil Meer,” 19, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was convicted on Thursday at trial of conspiracy to commit carjacking, three counts of carjacking, and three counts of using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, for his role in a carjacking spree in the city in early 2024.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Carson-Williams was part of a gang that conspired to commit three armed carjackings in Philadelphia in less than one hour. Video surveillance footage, cell phone data, forensic evidence, items recovered from one of the stolen vehicles, and victim testimony linked Carson-Williams to the carjackings.

“Carson-Williams and his three co-conspirators first stole a blue 2019 Honda CR-V from the 1800 block of Lansing Street in Philadelphia during the overnight hours of January 27, 2024,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated. “Approximately 90 minutes later, just before 5 a.m., they drove the stolen CR-V to the Sunoco gas station located on the 5300 block of North 5th Street and pulled up next to a 67-year-old man putting air in his car’s tires. Two of the offenders jumped out of the CR-V, both armed with handguns, wearing black clothing and black balaclava masks, and demanded that the victim give up the keys to his 2011 BMW 328i. One of the offenders put a gun to the back of the man’s head and forced him to the ground. When the victim told the males that the key was in the car, one of the carjackers entered the BMW and the other male returned to the Honda CR-V. Both vehicles fled the scene.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office went on to state that at approximately 5:15 a.m., a 34-year-old man parked his gray 2013 Chevrolet Equinox on the 3300 block of Shelmire Avenue. Two of the carjackers suddenly ran up to the driver’s side of his car and pointed guns at him. As they held the victim at gunpoint, the stolen Honda CR-V drove up. The gunmen ordered the victim to lay on the ground with his face down, and threatened to shoot him if he got up. The offenders then stole the victim’s vehicle and personal possessions, including his wallet, money, watch, and power tools.

Finally, at approximately 5:45 a.m., the stolen blue CR-V pulled up next to a 54-year-old man pumping gas at the Conoco station on the 5700 block of Rising Sun Avenue. Two of the offenders, both armed with handguns, approached the victim and pointed the guns at his face. After forcing the victim to the ground at gunpoint, one of the carjackers got behind the wheel of the victim’s Honda Accord, and the other male reentered the CR-V. Both vehicles fled in the same direction.

“Symair Carson-Williams and his co-conspirators thought nothing of terrorizing three innocent victims who’d just been going about their morning,” Thayer said. “People in this city shouldn’t have to live in fear every time they get behind the wheel. That’s why this office and our partners on the Philadelphia Carjacking Task Force are using every tool we have to prosecute the criminals responsible, get them off the street, and make the community safer.”

Eric DeGree, the Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Philadelphia Field Division, also weighed in, “Carson-Williams and his criminal associates terrorized innocent Philadelphians with this triple-carjacking spree using a stolen car, threatening their victims’ lives with guns to their heads – this young man now faces a mandatory minimum 21 years in federal prison. Using ATF’s unique forensic and investigative tools with our Carjacking Task Force partners we are bringing criminals like this to justice and making Philadelphia’s streets safer.”

The case was investigated by the ATF and the Philadelphia Police Department and is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorneys Branwen McNabb O’Donnell and Brian Doherty.

This nineteen-year-old thug overachiever will be spending the rest of his youth in a federal prison. Hopefully, this case will give some would-be carjackers pause.

Paul Davis, a Philadelphia writer and frequent contributor to Broad + Liberty, also contributes to Counterterrorism magazine and writes the “On Crime” column for the Washington Times. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime.com.