Waukegan Residents Plan March To Police Station After Officer Fatally Shoots Man, Injures Woman
CHICAGO (CBS)-- Protesters planned to march in north suburban Waukegan on Thursday, after police shot and killed 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette, and wounded his girlfriend during a traffic stop this week.
Police have said at 11:55 p.m. Tuesday, a Waukegan police officer was investigating a vehicle with two people inside at Liberty and Oak streets, when the driver of the car drove off. Moments later, another officer spotted the car a few blocks away near Martin Luther King Jr. and South avenues. While that second officer was out of his vehicle approaching the suspect car, it began to reverse, police said.
The officer fired his semi-automatic pistol and struck both Stinnette and the woman who was driving. The driver, identified as Tafara Williams, survived the shooting, but Stinnette, her boyfriend, was pronounced dead at Vista Medical Center East.
Police said no firearm was recovered from the fleeing vehicle.
"She said he just started shooting. She said, 'Mama, he let every clip out that he could!' She said, 'Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!'" said Williams' mother, Clifftina Johnson.
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Williams was hospitalized in serious condition, but was expected to recover.
"She said she just pled to the police for her life," Johnson said. "She said that she wanted to see her babies. She said… she want to see her babies."
At noon, protesters plan to march from the site of the shooting to the Waukegan police station, demanding video evidence of the shooting be released.
Waukegan police do have body and dashboard cameras, and that state police now have that video. CBS 2 has to put in a request for that video.
Police have said the officer who fired the shots is a Hispanic male who has been on the force for five years. He is now on paid administrative leave.
Illinois State Police are leading the investigation into the shooting, a decision some are unhappy with.
"We want to shut down the streets. We want to shut down this police station today, and let them know that we demand the [U.S. Department of Justice] come in … and do the investigation, because we don't want police investigating police," said Clyde McElmore, founder of Lake County Black Lives Matter.
Waukegan police Sgt. Edgar Navarro was asked what he would say to people who are upset about the shooting by police.
"We're also upset," Navarro said. "It is something that our community, our police department has great concern over, and it's difficult for all of us."
An emotional Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said the deadly police shooting hit close to home. He personally knew Stinnette. On Wednesday night, the mayor wanted to know just what led up to the incident.
"I look like I look, I look nervous. I am nervous, because I'm nervous for Waukegan," Cunningham said. "We've seen this play out throughout this country, but it just rips through communities."
The mayor, who knows the family of both people who were shot personally, is calling on anyone with any evidence to come forward.
"Give it to a friend, but we need it now so these questions can be answered," Cunningham said. "It just doesn't hurt me. It doesn't the police department – it hurts Waukegan, Illinois."
In addition to their being no weapon found in the car, there was no reason found by the victim's family for the fast and fatal response.
"They dragged her out of that vehicle," Johnson said. "They took Marcellis' body first. She didn't even know — shedon't know right now — that he's deceased."
The initial stop, we are told, was for a "suspicious vehicle." But the first and second stop were just blocks apart, in the neighborhood that both people whom police shot call home.