Girlfriend of man fatally shot by Waukegan police addresses rally from hospital bed

“Don’t allow them to do this to us. No justice, no peace. I won’t sleep until Marcellis [Stinnette Jr.] gets justice,” Tafara Williams, who was also wounded in the shooting, told the crowd.

By Daily Herald

Clifftina Johnson, mother of Tafara Williams, speaks during a Black Lives Matter Rally in Waukgan Saturday as Marcellis Stinnette Jr., age seven months, is held by his aunt, Sharay Johnson. Williams, the boy’s mother, was shot and wounded, and her boyfriend, Marcellis Stinnette, the boy’s father, was shot and killed by a Waukegan police officer this week.

About 200 people rallied in Waukegan Saturday afternoon to protest the police shooting Tuesday night that killed Marcellis Stinnette, 19, and seriously injured his girlfriend, Tafara Williams, who is still in the hospital.

In the most emotional moment of the gathering, Clifftina Johnson, Williams’ mother, held her cellphone up to a megaphone as Williams spoke to the crowd from her hospital bed and as her and Stinnette’s 7-month-old son, Marcellis Stinnette Jr., was held by an aunt, Sharay Johnson.

“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.

The rally, organized by Clyde McLemore, the founder of the Lake County chapter of Black Lives Matter, came less than 24 hours after the city announced that it had fired the officer who fired into a stopped vehicle that police say was backing toward the officer, leaving the officer in fear of his life. No gun was found in the vehicle, which was being driven by Williams. Both people shot are Black.

The officer, who had been on the force about five years, was dismissed “for multiple policy and procedure violations,” a news release said.