WAUKEGAN, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Attorneys for the 20-year-old woman who was shot by Waukegan police last Tuesday said authorities should look at criminal charges against the officer for wounding the woman and killing her 19-year-old boyfriend.
Speaking from her hospital room, Tafara Williams said she and her boyfriend, Marcellis Stinnette, were sitting in a car and were questioned by police before she slowly drove off. Williams continued, explaining that it was as if another officer was waiting for them nearby and was in a car crash when she lost control of the vehicle. Then a police officer opening fire.
Related
“I kept screaming, ‘I don’t have a gun,’ but he kept shooting. He told me to get out of the car. I had my hands up and I couldn’t move because I had been shot. Marcellis had his hands up,” Williams said.
Stinnette was killed.
“I told them, ‘Please don’t shoot. I have a baby. We have a baby. We don’t want to die,” Williams said of the 7-month-old son she has with Stinnette.
Related
Police have said no weapon was found in the couple’s car. And that the officer said he opened fire because the car was moving toward him and he feared for his life.
“This officer should undergo a very serious criminal investigation as to why he shot,” said Tony Romanucci, one of the attorneys for Tafara Williams and her family. “The underlying reason is race.”
The officer was fired just a few days after the incident last week.
Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said the city will publicly release bodycam and dashcam video of the fatal shooting this week.