The world knows Serena and Venus as the ultimate icons of power and grace on a tennis court. But there's a heavy, jagged piece of their history that doesn't always make the highlight reels. It’s the story of their oldest sister, Yetunde Price, and a warm September night in 2003 that changed the Williams family forever.
People often search for "Serena sister killed by Crips," and while that phrase is blunt, the reality of what happened in Compton is a lot more complex. It wasn’t a targeted hit on a celebrity family. It was a tragic case of being in the wrong place at the exactly wrong moment.
The Night of September 14, 2003
Yetunde Price was 31 years old. She wasn't just a sister; she was a nurse, a mother of three, and the "nucleus" of the family. On that Sunday morning, around 12:15 a.m., she was sitting in the passenger seat of a white GMC Yukon. Her boyfriend, Rolland Wormley, was behind the wheel.
They were driving through Compton, blocks away from the very tennis courts where Richard Williams famously coached Serena and Venus. As they passed a house on East Greenleaf Boulevard, a hail of gunfire erupted.
Bullets shattered the back window.
Wormley didn't even realize Yetunde had been hit at first. He sped away, trying to get to safety, only to look over and see the blood. He drove to a relative's house to call 911, but it was too late. Yetunde was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital from a gunshot wound to the head.
Why the Crips were involved
The house they were passing wasn't just any house. Prosecutors later established it was a suspected "crack house" being guarded by members of the South Side Compton Crips.
The neighborhood was a war zone of gang tension. The guards at the house—including Robert Edward Maxfield—were reportedly on high alert for rivals, specifically from the Lime Hood Piru gang. When Yetunde’s SUV rolled by, they opened fire under the mistaken belief they were defending their turf from an incoming hit.
Yetunde was an innocent bystander. She wasn't involved in the lifestyle, and neither was the vehicle. She was simply a woman going home.
The Man Behind the Trigger
It took years to get justice. The first two trials for Robert Edward Maxfield ended in mistrials because juries couldn't agree on a verdict.
In 2006, Maxfield finally pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. For the Williams family, it was a closure of sorts, but the pain didn't just evaporate.
Honestly, the legal saga was almost as exhausting as the grief itself. Imagine being Serena Williams, the greatest athlete on the planet, and having to fly back and forth to attend hearings where the details of your sister's death are dissected by lawyers.
- The Killer: Robert Edward Maxfield (South Side Compton Crips)
- The Sentence: 15 years for voluntary manslaughter
- The Release: He was paroled in 2018 after serving about 12 years.
How the News Broke Serena
The timing of Maxfield’s release in 2018 was particularly brutal. Serena found out he was being let out for "good behavior" while she was scrolling through Instagram, literally ten minutes before she had to walk onto the court for a match at the Silicon Valley Classic.
She lost that match 6-1, 6-0. It was the worst defeat of her professional career.
"I couldn’t shake it out of my mind," she later told Time. She wasn't thinking about her serve or her footwork. She was thinking about Yetunde’s kids. She was thinking about the fact that her sister would never get to hug her again, no matter how much "good behavior" she showed in life.
It’s easy to look at celebrities and think they’re shielded from the "real world," but this hit the Williams family at their very core.
The Legacy: More Than a Statistic
Yetunde wasn't just a victim. She was a registered nurse and a co-owner of a hair salon. She stayed in the community even as her sisters became millionaires because she wanted to be her own person.
Venus and Serena didn't let the story end with the shooting. In 2016, they opened the Yetunde Price Resource Center in Compton.
This isn't just a building with a name on it. It’s a place designed to help families who have gone through exactly what they went through—the sudden, violent loss of a loved one. They wanted to turn a senseless act into a source of healing for a neighborhood that often gets forgotten once the news cameras leave.
What Most People Get Wrong
There’s a common misconception that Yetunde was "caught up" in the gang world. That’s just not true.
Compton in the early 2000s was a place where "wrong place, wrong time" was a daily reality for thousands of hardworking people. The shooters weren't aiming for Yetunde Price, the sister of tennis stars. They were aiming at a car they didn't recognize.
Actionable Takeaways and Insights
If you’re looking to understand the gravity of this event, here is how it continues to impact the world today:
- Community Support: If you want to honor Yetunde’s memory, looking into the Yetunde Price Resource Center is a great start. They provide trauma-informed programs that are actually making a dent in the cycle of violence.
- The Reality of Parole: The 2018 controversy surrounding Maxfield’s release highlights the friction between the legal system’s "rehabilitation" goals and a victim’s family’s need for justice.
- Trauma in Sports: We often talk about the mental health of athletes. For Serena, the death of her sister is a primary source of the "mental anxiety" she has spoken about throughout her career.
The story of Serena’s sister being killed is a reminder that even the most successful people in the world carry scars that never fully fade. Yetunde remains the "rock" of the Williams family, even two decades after she was taken from them.
The best way to respect that history is to remember Yetunde for how she lived—as a mother and a healer—rather than just how she died.
Next Steps: You can read more about the Williams family's early years in Compton in their various biographies, or visit the YPRC website to see how they are currently supporting victims of violent crime in Los Angeles.
