Family, Friends Of Waukegan Man Shot To Death By Police Speaks Out: 'We Need Accountability'
CHICAGO (CBS) - She said she begged police not to shoot.
Now, a young suburban mother is talking about the shooting that killed her boyfriend and left her in the hospital.
CBS 2's Chris Tye reports on the latest from Waukegan.
Marcellis Stinette's girlfriend said he was still alive when police put a sheet over him last week. One officer has been fired. The family is demanding criminal charges and they still haven't been allowed to see the bodycam of the moment it all happened.
"We need accountability and need someone to get up and say we messed up," said relative LaTonya Johnson.
No one has yet owned the "mess up" that the family said began late last Tuesday with a stop for what police called a "suspicious vehicle."
From her hospital bed, Tafara Williams recalls the two police encounters ending with the police gunfire that killed her baby's father Marcellis Stinette.
"I kept asking him why. Why," Williams said. "So I rolled down the window and turned on all the lights in the car so the officer could see I had no weapons and I wasn't doing anything illegal," she added.
"I asked the officer if we were free to leave, I asked him if we were under arrest. The officer took a few steps away from the car and got on his cell phone. I drove away very slowly because I was scared to get out of the car," Williams said.
Police said she drove in reverse toward the officer who fired on the scene. Williams doesn't comment on that.
"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!' But he kept shooting. He told me to get out of the car. I could hear Marcellis still breathing," Williams said. "I told them 'please don't shoot. I have a baby. We have a baby. We don't want to die.'"
Williams added "they laid Marcellis on the ground and covered him up with a blanket while he was still breathing. I know he was still alive. They wanted us to bleed out on the ground."
CBS 2 reached out to the police department and the city for comment on the allegations that Stinette was still alive and covered over by a blanket. Neither the police department nor the mayor's office returned requests for comment.
Also From CBS Chicago:
- New Wave Of COVID-19 Has Doctors, Hospitals On Notice
- Baby Found Safe After Mom Said Car Was Stolen With Child Inside
- Tinley Park House Catches Fire After Car Crashes Into It; Driver Missing
