The more we learn about John T. Williams, the homeless Native American man shot to death by police near Boren Avenue on Monday, the sadder his story becomes.

He was apparently a fine carver and craftsman, who’d been accursed by alcoholism and by an apparent inability to survive in urban society.

He was said to have had an ornery streak, but was probably not threatening police officers at the time he was shot. Under this version of events he was simply carrying, and using, his carving knife.