ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Mich. – A longtime friend of Thomas Williamson said repeated warnings about the 43-year-old’s deteriorating mental state and his access to guns around his severely autistic son went unheeded in the weeks before Williamson’s girlfriend, Dr. Kathleen Fabian, was shot inside her St. Clair County home.
“Preventable in many ways,” said his friend.
David, who said he has known Williamson for 25 years, told Local 4 that in recent years, his friend began expressing escalating paranoia.
“He’s been saying things like the federal authorities are following him, they’ve broken into his home, they’ve stolen his ammunition and replaced it with blank ammunition,” David said.
Family members said they were all together, including Fabian, whom friends and family say Williamson met on a dating app, for a July 4 celebration, and that the day went well, with no signs of any violence or distress.
Williamson’s family acknowledged Williamson suffered a “mental breakdown” a couple of years ago. About a month before the shooting, David said he saw Williamson waving his gun in a public place.
“I knew right then and there that my friend had lost his way. But he wasn’t dealing with reality,” David said.
Concerned for Williamson’s son and the firearms in the home, David said he first called Protective Services anonymously.
He then said he contacted the Port Huron Police and a St. Clair County sheriff’s deputy he knew, urging them to consider using Michigan’s red flag law to remove Williamson’s weapons temporarily.
“The officer I spoke to on the phone at the Port Huron Police Department did not seem to know what law I was talking about.
The sheriff’s officer didn’t know, but he told me it’s a relatively new law and he hasn’t really dug into it yet," David said.
Exactly one month later, Fabian was shot inside her home on Walker Road, allegedly accidentally, during a sexual act, according to friends and family. She is in the hospital and recovering.
Friends and family also say Williamson later jumped onto his motorcycle and crashed near a highway. He is on life support.
“We don’t have anybody to hold them to account. So we have to get a news organization from 70 miles away to come up here to cover a story,” David said.