Excerpt: "A Black woman who was shot and wounded inside a vehicle by a police officer who also fatally shot her 19-year-old boyfriend told about 200 people gathered at an emotional rally in suburban Chicago on Saturday that she was fighting 'to be strong' for her son."
Demonstrators protest the police shooting that killed Marcellis Stinnette and wounded his girlfriend, Tafara Williams, in Waukegan, Illinois, on 22 October. (photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
25 October 20
Black woman who was shot and wounded inside a vehicle by a police officer who also fatally shot her 19-year-old boyfriend told about 200 people gathered at an emotional rally in suburban Chicago on Saturday that she was fighting “to be strong” for her son.
The protest in Waukegan, about 40 miles north of Chicago, was organized by Clyde McLemore, the founder of the Lake county chapter of Black Lives Matter. It took place less than a day after police chief Wayne Walles announced the firing of the officer who fatally shot Marcellis Stinnette, a Black man, and wounded Tafara Williams, 20.
Walles said the male officer committed “multiple policy and procedure violations”.
During the gathering, Clifftina Johnson, Williams’ mother, put a megaphone to her cellphone as Williams passionately spoke to the crowd from her hospital bed as another family member at the rally held her and Stinnette’s seven-month-old son.
“Don’t allow them to do this to us. No justice, no peace. I won’t sleep until Marcellis gets justice. He didn’t deserve it, and they waited for him to die. No justice, no peace. And my son don’t have a father no more, but I’m fighting for him, and I’m in this hospital, and I’m trying to be strong,” Williams said.
Attorneys representing Williams called the officer’s firing “a first step in police accountability” but said they were pressing ahead with their own investigation of the shooting.
No other details, including the officer’s name, were provided in the announcement, which came shortly after Lake county’s chief prosecutor said the FBI would join Illinois state police in investigating Tuesday’s shooting.
Authorities have said the shooting that killed Stinnette and wounded Williams occurred following a traffic stop. The officer who shot the couple is Hispanic and had been with the Waukegan police department for five years.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, representing Williams, said they were moving forward “with our own investigation into the facts of this tragedy”.
“The firing of the officer involved in this week’s tragic and senseless shooting in Waukegan is a first step in police accountability, but does nothing to restore the life and health of the two young people involved,” they said.
Waukegan police have said Williams was driving and Stinnette was a passenger in a vehicle that fled a traffic stop conducted by a white officer late on Tuesday and that the vehicle was later spotted by another officer. Police said that as the second officer approached, the vehicle started moving in reverse and the officer – fearing for his safety – opened fire. No weapon was found in the vehicle.
Activists and relatives of the couple have demanded the release of police video of the shooting, which authorities say has been turned over to investigators.
McLemore is among those who have called for the video’s release and for a federal investigation of the shooting. He said the Saturday protest and march in Waukegan were planned to demand that a special prosecutor investigate the shooting and for authorities to release the officer’s name.
“Whatever the FBI finds we want a special prosecutor brought in. We want the name of the police officer released because firing the police officer only allows him to go to another police department and get a job somewhere else and do this again,” McLemore said.
He said he and other activists also want the now-fired officer “arrested and prosecuted”, and to face murder and attempted murder charges.
Activist Chris Blanks said on Thursday the police video of the shooting is particularly important because the police version of events and the version Clifftina Johnson said her wounded daughter, Williams, shared with her appear to contradict each other. Johnson said her daughter told her that Williams and her boyfriend had done nothing to provoke the officer.
Lake county state’s attorney Michael Nerheim said he had asked the US justice department to review the circumstances surrounding the shooting, and said the federal agency had agreed to do so. He urged calm while the investigation takes place and pledged transparency.
