A Model Murderer?: Target Ad's Ray Armstrong Charged In Killing

Philadelphia-area model Ray Armstrong has been charged with murder. If you’re anything like me the name –- or his face for that matter –- doesn’t ring a bell, but I’d recognize those abs, pecs and arms anywhere. This is the cat that was recently featured in this Target print ad campaign that prominently hung above Times Square throughout this year’s Summer Olympics.

With all due respect to the dead, something about the back story just isn’t adding up to me. It just seems to be missing some key details.

According to this very curious article, the victim, 37-year old Anthony Williams, “photographed, befriended, helped and sometimes housed” the 31-year old model. Armstrong went to the victim’s house that fateful night because his girlfriend kicked him out and he needed a place to stay. Williams turned Armstrong away and told him he wouldn’t let him live there again. Witnesses reported that Armstrong, who was high out of his mind off a blunt dipped in formaldehyde, wasn’t trying to take no for an answer, became irate and started kicking in his own car windows.

This is where the story starts to get fishy.

After initially turning him away, the victim allowed Armstrong into the house to “snap his friend back to reality.” A few minutes went by and the wet and naked model re-emerged outside, laid down on the ground and prayed until a neighbor approached him. He admitted to the neighbor that he had killed Anthony Williams. The police were called and whisked him off to jail where he currently sits awaiting his prelim trial.

**takes off specs and prepares editorial**

This SCREAMED lover’s quarrel from the moment I read the headline. PLEASE get into the storyline:

Older man befriends young, attractive model who, for drama’s sake, also happens to abuse drugs. Older man looks after said model, allows him to live with him at times and photographs him on occasion. Young, attractive model has spat with girlfriend and turns to older man for comfort and a place to rest his head. Older man initially turns young model away, but invites him in for a cold shower to “snap him back to [a sober] reality”. After several minutes of shouting, the young model comes back outside dripping wet and naked, falls to the ground and admits to killing older man.

If that doesn’t have ‘LOGO Feature Presentation’ written all over it, then I don’t know what does.

I can't really say that I'd let even my closet friends into my home after seeing them high off more than weed and kicking in windshields and shit. I'd call for help, no doubt, but as far as me offering a cold shower in my bathroom...oh, no ma'am. Maybe that's just me. What I really want to know is if the victim turned Armstrong away because he tired of being a stop on the train back to Pussytown. I'm not sayin'...I'm just sayin'.

On a serious note, this is really unforunate. Obviously, it's sad that a life was lost, but Armstrong seemed like he was well on his way. He had signed with a major agency, he had the Target print ad thing going for him and he was also pushing an exercise DVD series. Now, he’s resigned to being fresh meat on the yard. The whole murderer thing aside, you have to feel a little sorry for the guy. We all know what they do to PYTs in the clink. For his own good, he betta not drop that soap.