Waukegan police officer turned on body cam after fatal shooting, city releases videos

The former Waukegan police officer who fatally shot a Black teen and wounded a Black woman last week turned on his body camera after the shooting.

CHICAGO – The former Waukegan police officer who fatally shot a Black teen and wounded a Black woman last week turned on his body camera after the shooting, according to videos released by the northern Illinois city Wednesday afternoon.

The officer, who was identified only as a Hispanic five-year member of the department, was terminated Friday night "for multiple policy and procedure violations," Department Commander Edgar Navarro said.

"The body-worn camera of the officer involved was not activated to properly archive the time of the shooting.

This was a breach of Waukegan Police Department policies, and one of the reasons for the officer’s termination," Mayor Sam Cunningham said in a statement Wednesday.

The site of a prayer vigil held for Tafara Williams is seen on October 27, 2020 in Waukegan, Illinois.

Williams was shot and wounded during a police shooting that killed 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette. (Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski, Getty Images).

The officer who is wearing the body camera says, "I did," and the other officer responds, "You did?".

The lawyers said the videos gave "no indication at all" that Williams and Stinnette were involved in any sort of crime and called their behavior "innocuous." The videos showed no evidence that Williams tried to run the officer over, Crump said.

"It just is inexplicable why this officer shot and, why immediately after he shoots, turns on his body camera afterwards and says, 'You tried to run me over,' almost as if he knew he messed up," Crump said.

The Waukegan Police Department and Williams, who spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday via Zoom at a press conference from her hospital bed, have offered two different pictures of what happened that night.

The initial police report said the officer was "in fear for his safety." He struck both Stinnette and Williams.

Navarro did not elaborate on why the vehicle was stopped in the first place, but body cam video reveals that the initial officer approaches the car to ask the passengers, "Are you the two that got in an accident?" The officer appears to know Stinnette and Williams by name and tells Stinnette he's under arrest.

That's when an officer approached the car, called the two by name, and harassed Stinnette, Williams said.

Williams said an officer dragged her away from Stinnette and laid him on the ground and covered him with a blanket "while he was still breathing." Williams said she asked the officers to take Stinnette in the ambulance first, but they didn't

Illinois State Police's Public Integrity Task Force was investigating the incident, and the Waukegan Police Department had turned over all reports, body cam and dashcam videos, Navarro said

Demonstrators protest the October 20, police shooting that led to the death of 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette and left his girlfriend, 20-year-old Tafara Williams, with serious injuries on October 22, 2020 in Waukegan, Illinois. (Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images)