William Reaves: key obituary facts
Is William Reaves dead? Yes. William Reaves died on October 20, 2026, at age 77.
Cause of death: William Reaves's cause of death was reported as Lethal injection.
What was William Reaves known for?
William Reaves was an American convicted murder, execution by lethal injection.
William Reaves, an American convicted murderer, was executed by lethal injection on October 20, 2026, at age 77.
His conviction was connected to the 1986 killing of Richard Raczkoski, a 29-year-old corporal and sheriff’s deputy in Vero Beach, Florida. At about 3 a.m.
on September 23, Raczkoski responded to a 911 call made from a phone booth outside a convenience store. Minutes after arriving, he was shot outside the store; his body was found with four gunshot wounds. A note found inside Raczkoski’s patrol car listed Reaves’s name and identifying information, including a birth date. A witness testified to seeing a Black man in a white T-shirt and red shorts running from the scene, and described the man’s running as resembling that of soldiers under fire in Vietnam. Reaves was later arrested in Georgia and convicted in connection with Raczkoski’s murder.