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Black woman, 20, who was injured in Illinois police shooting says cops covered her boyfriend, 19, with a blanket and left him for dead while he was still ALIVE

The black woman who was shot by police last week in a Chicago suburb is speaking out from her hospital bed saying she and her boyfriend had their hands up when an officer opened fire and killed him. 

Tafara Williams, 20, cried as she spoke to reporters in a Zoom call from her hospital room and recounted the harrowing October 20 shooting in Waukegan where 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette, the father of her child, was fatally shot. 

Williams said the officer covered her boyfriend with a blanket after shooting him and left him on the ground to die. 

'They laid Marcellis on the ground and covered him with a blanket while he was still breathing. I know he was still alive and they took that away from me,' Williams said.

'They allowed him to die. They wanted us to bleed out on the ground,' she said.

'That day, I lost the love of my life and the father of my 7-month-old son. The is the only thing I have left of Marcellis,' she added emotionally.

Tafara Williams, 20, cried as she spoke to reporters in a Zoom call from her hospital room in Libertyville, Illinois on Thursday recounting how police shot her and fatally shot her boyfriend 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette, the father of her child

Tafara Williams, 20, cried as she spoke to reporters in a Zoom call from her hospital room in Libertyville, Illinois on Thursday recounting how police shot her and fatally shot her boyfriend 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette, the father of her child

Marcellis Stinnette

Marcellis Stinnette, 19, was killed and his girlfriend and the mother of his child, Tafara Williams was seriously injured when a police officer in Waukegan opened fire on October 20

Williams shared in detail for the first time how she was sitting in her car with Stinnette in front of her home because she did not want to smoke near their seven-month-old son.

She said a white officer pulled up and started to question her.

'The officer called Marcellis by name. He asked me, "Was I Tafara?" and told me that I was Marcellis' baby mother. Then he started harassing Marcellis. He stood near the car with his left hand on his gun and he said to Marcellis, "I know you from jail,"' Williams recalled. 

Williams said she asked the officer if they could drive away or if they were under arrest.  

'The officer took a few steps away from the car and got on his cellphone. I drove away very slowly because I was scared to get out of the car,' she said, noting the cop didn't follow them.  

She said a short time later it seemed to her that another officer was 'waiting for us' and a second cop approached their vehicle. 

'There was a crash and I lost control. The officer was shooting at us. The car ended up slamming into a building. I kept screaming, "I don't have a gun,"' she said. 

'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. I kept asking him why, why he was shooting,' she added.

Williams was struck in the abdomen and arm, but is expected to recover. 

Williams said the officer covered her boyfriend with a blanket after shooting him and left him on the ground to die. 'They laid Marcellis on the ground and covered him with a blanket while he was still breathing. I know he was still alive and they took that away from me,' Williams said. Williams was struck in the abdomen and arm, but is expected to recoverWilliams was struck in the abdomen and arm, but is expected to recover.

Williams said the officer covered her boyfriend with a blanket after shooting him and left him on the ground to die. 'They laid Marcellis on the ground and covered him with a blanket while he was still breathing. I know he was still alive and they took that away from me,' Williams said. Williams was struck in the abdomen and arm, but is expected to recover

Williams said Stinnette was shaking uncontrollably when more officers arrived, as per ABC News.  

'My blood was gushing out on my body. The officers started yelling. They wouldn't give us an ambulance until we got out of the car. When I moved, blood seemed to pour out of my body on the floor of the car, on the ground, everywhere,' she said.

Williams said she could hear Stinnette breathing and begged the police to take him to the hospital first because he had recently had surgery, but her pleas were ignored.

She recalled begging: 'Please don't shoot. I have a baby, we have a baby. We don't want to die.' 

On Friday, the police department fired the officer who shot Williams and Stinnette, described as a Hispanic, five-year veteran of the force. 

Waukegan police tell a different version of events. 

Authorities said they received a report of a suspicious vehicle and an officer found Williams and Stinnette in the car. Police say the officer attempted to investigate the car and the vehicle unexpectedly fled the scene. 

They said that a short time later the Hispanic officer approached the vehicle and opened fire out of fear for his own safety when the vehicle moved in reverse toward him. 

No weapon was found in the vehicle.


One of the attorneys representing Williams and Stinnette's family, Antonio Romanucci, said there was only one reason why the officer pulled up behind Williams and Stinnette in the first place.

'He profiled these people because of the color of their skin. That was their crime,' he said. 

Clifftina Johnson (back, left), Tafara Williams' mother, cries as her daughter, Sasha Williams, sings during a press conference outside city hall in Waukegan, Illinois on Tuesday

Clifftina Johnson (back, left), Tafara Williams' mother, cries as her daughter, Sasha Williams, sings during a press conference outside city hall in Waukegan, Illinois on Tuesday 

Clifftina Johnson cries as she talks about her daughter, Tafara Williams, during a press conference outside city hall in Waukegan, Illinois on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020

Clifftina Johnson cries as she talks about her daughter, Tafara Williams, during a press conference outside city hall in Waukegan, Illinois on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020 

Family and supporters of Tafara Williams listen as attorney Antonio Romanucci speaks during a press conference outside city hall in Waukegan, Illinois Tuesdays. 'He profiled these people because of the color of their skin. That was their crime,' Romanucci said on why cops pulled Williams and Stinnette over

Family and supporters of Tafara Williams listen as attorney Antonio Romanucci speaks during a press conference outside city hall in Waukegan, Illinois Tuesdays. 'He profiled these people because of the color of their skin. That was their crime,' Romanucci said on why cops pulled Williams and Stinnette over

Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said Sunday that dashcam and bodycam videos of the shooting would be made public after relatives of the shooting victims have watched it. 

The video is particularly important because the version of events given by police appears to contradict the version that Williams' mother, Clifftina Johnson, gave after she visited her daughter in the hospital.

Johnson has said that her daughter told her that she and Stinnette did nothing to provoke the officer before he opened fire. 

Cunningham has urged the community to remain calm and to 'respect' the process. 

Protests since the incident have been peaceful, and Waukegan has avoided the kind of looting and violence that occurred in nearby Kenosha, Wisconsin, just 15 miles north of Waukegan, after a white police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back seven times in August. Blake survived, but his family has said that he is paralyzed from the waist down. 

Three days ago, Williams told protesters in a telephone call from her hospital bed that she would continue to fight for justice on Stinnette's behalf. 

Demonstrators took to the streets to protest after the police shooting of the unarmed black couple on October 20 in Waukegan

Demonstrators took to the streets to protest after the police shooting of the unarmed black couple on October 20 in Waukegan

Local Black Lives Matter organizer Clyde McLemore said he wants the police officers involved to be prosecuted. He called on the Department of Justice to step in and investigate the shooting rather than the state police

Rayon Edwards speaks on a megaphone as he marches with protesters during a protest rally for Marcellis Stinnette on Thursday October 22

Rayon Edwards speaks on a megaphone as he marches with protesters during a protest rally for Marcellis Stinnette on Thursday October 22

Sherrellis Sheria Stinnette, grandmother of Marcellis Stinnette, cried as she spoke of her grandson on Thursday October 22 in Waukegan

Sherrellis Sheria Stinnette, grandmother of Marcellis Stinnette, cried as she spoke of her grandson on Thursday October 22 in Waukegan

'He didn't deserve it, and they waited for him to die,' she said Saturday on a call that a crowd of protesters heard after her mother put a megaphone to her cellphone.

The press briefing organized by Crump and Romanucci, comes exactly one week after the shooting.   

Romanucci said the two of them met with Cunningham.

'We've been assured and promised transparency. We're going to take this to heart,' Romanucci said. Still, he said, a lawsuit will be filed.

'Without that we can't make the permanent changes that we require in this country and in this community,' he said. 'We want policy changes.'

The FBI and Illinois State Police are conducting an independent investigation into the shooting and will present their findings to Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Nerheim, who will then decide whether to press charges. 

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