LA Clippers player asks followers for help in finding aunt's killer

[July 24, 2014]  (Reuters) - A player for the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers has taken to social media to ask for help in finding a man wanted for stabbing his aunt to death, generating new tips in the case, his family said on Wednesday.

Clippers forward Matt Barnes posted pictures of Michael Williams, 51, to his Instagram and Twitter accounts on Tuesday, saying the man was wanted by police in the California capital in connection with the fatal stabbing of his aunt, Tanganyika Williams, 48.

Barnes pleaded for anyone who had seen the man, identified by the slain woman's son as her estranged husband, to call his family or the police with details.

"This dude stabbed my auntie in the neck last week & left her for dead on the sidewalk, she ended up dying on the way to the hospital in the ambulance," he wrote in the post.

A Sacramento Police spokesman confirmed Williams was wanted for homicide in connection with the July 8 stabbing.

On Wednesday, Tanganyika Williams' adult son, David Williams Jr., said that since that message was published, the family has received multiple calls from people who said they had seen Michael Williams in stores around Sacramento.

"There are going to be less and less places that this guy is going to have to hide," said David Williams, who is not related to the suspect by blood. He said the man and his mother were married, and that she had been trying to get a divorce.

Police believe Williams is still in Sacramento, police spokesman Doug Morse said.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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