Aug 12, 2020 2 min read

A Waynesburg man who was hoping to have charges dismissed from a theater shooting outside Washington last year will have to face further court proceedings.

Chris Allan Williams, 53, of Waynesburg, has been charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and harassment.

Williams is due in Washington County Court in late September before Judge Valarie Costanzo, who last week denied the aim of his habeas corpus petition.

In her order, Costanzo wrote that she presided over testimony given July 1 and reviewed pertinent case law and the transcript of a preliminary hearing convened in June 2019 in coming up with her decision that the charges against Williams should remain.

At the most recent hearing, the victim, Anthony Ward, now 18, described a confrontation the night of March 23, 2019, between a group with whom he had been watching the movie, “Us,” and Williams, who was angry about noise the youths had been making during the psychological thriller.

Blows were exchanged, and Ward was the last of the group to leave the Regal Crown Center Theater in North Franklin Township.

As he advanced down a hallway a few feet from an exit, Ward said Williams came from behind him and he saw a gun pointed at his face.

Williams, who is white, used a racial slur against him, according to Ward, who is Black.

A scuffle at floor-level ensued, the gun went off and Ward was shot in the leg. Ward said he had been attempting to disarm an attacker.

Ward was flown by helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, and, about a month later, underwent surgery.

Treated and released from a hospital the night of the confrontation, Williams was not charged until April 30, 2019, despite protest marches and rallies held on behalf of the victim.

Williams is on leave from his job as a corrections officer at SCI-Greene.