Six Weeks After Psychiatric Release, Man Who Killed Brother Faces New Arson-Threat Charge
ESSEX— A man who killed his brother as a teenager has been jailed in Baltimore County, accused of threatening to burn down his mother’s home just six weeks after his release from a state psychiatric hospital.
Tylek Williams, 22, appeared via video for a bail review Monday at the Baltimore County Detention Center. He is charged with a misdemeanor count of threatening to commit arson.
“He is way too dangerous to release under the circumstances,” Judge Robert Cahill said in ordering Williams held without bond.
Williams was 15 in 2018 when Harford County authorities charged him with murder in the stabbing death of his 18-year-old brother, Gary Williams.
Charging documents state he suffers from mental illness and was recently released from a state psychiatric hospital following a three-year commitment.
According to court documents, Williams’ mother called Baltimore County police on Nov. 4 after receiving Instagram messages in which her son threatened to kill himself and burn down the family’s home on Cove Road.
In the messages, Williams wrote:
“Don’t go to sleep tonight cuz I’m about to f____ up all the windows and all your cars.”
He also wrote: “I hope the kids are out of the house cuz I don’t care no more. I’m going to f___ up that whole house and set that b____ on fire.”
Williams referenced his late brother as well, telling his mother: “Hope you can handle another death,” according to police.
When officers located Williams on Back River Neck Road, he said he was not feeling suicidal or homicidal at the time but admitted making the arson threats, according to the charging documents. He also told police he struggles with drug abuse, which he said causes him to act “erratically.”
Charging documents say Williams was released from Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville about six weeks before the threats.
In 2018, Harford County deputies found 18-year-old Gary Williams fatally stabbed in the chest inside his Jervis Square home.
Officers said Tylek Williams was the only other person present. Tylek Williams had called 911, telling the dispatcher he stabbed Gary.
Investigators say Tylek later waived his Miranda rights and again admitted to the stabbing. A kitchen knife was recovered at the scene.
A Baltimore County document says Williams was deemed “Mentally Insane*” by the court in his brother’s death.
————-
*The legal term used in Maryland is “Not Criminally Responsible,” meaning a person committed the act but isn’t held legally accountable because a mental illness left them unable to understand what they were doing or that it was wrong. It’s not an acquittal but a mental-health–based finding.