Black teen wrongly charged in a shooting says police offered him fast food to get a confession
An Illinois high school freshman in suburban Chicago alleged that police offered him food from a fast-food restaurant in exchange for confessing to a crime he didn’t do. Police arrested Martell Williams during class at Waukegan High School after he was identified by multiple people as the robber that shot a dollar store clerk in the face on Feb. 4 according to Chicago Tribune. A week before his arrest, the Waukegan Police Department had released images of the suspect, pulled from a surveillance camera, and asked for members of the community to help officers bring him in.
Police believed he was the shooter, detectives apprehended Williams at school and arrested him.
“I was in school in freshman seminar class, and the dean came down and got me and walked me to the office,” the 15-year-old said.
“And once I reached the office, there were just two police officers there. As soon as I got in, they didn’t tell me nothing or say anything. They just said I was under arrest.”
After he was arrested, they began urging him to admit to the crimes and told him he could have a some food from McDonald’s and go home if he confessed to the shooting. Then Williams under pressure and confused confessed to the crime. Shanika Williams, the high school student’s mother, says when she went to the police station, they wouldn’t let her see her child.
The teen was in jail for two nights in the Robert W. Depke Juvenile Complex Center in Vernon Hills before the charges were proven not to be true. The family who has hired an attorney, Kevin O’Connor has asked for a public apology for their “lazy police work.”
The Lake & McHenry Scanner reported that the Waukegan Deputy Police Chief Joe Florip confirmed detectives verified that at the time of the shooting Williams, who plays on the Waukegan High School’s basketball team, was at an away game at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, which is 17 miles from the scene of the crime.
Social media played a part to help provide the teen’s whereabouts. A screenshot from Snapchat showed him at the game at the time of the incident.
Waukegan Interim Police Chief Keith Zupec released a statement that read in part:
“Martell Williams did not commit this crime, nor was he involved in this crime in any fashion, and he should not have been brought to the juvenile detention facility. Martell should not have remained in that detention facility for a day and a half.
“The Waukegan Police Department apologizes for the pain and disruption our actions have caused Mr. Williams, his family, and the community. I will be reviewing this case with my staff, the Mayor, and the Lake County State’s Attorney to understand how we got this far. My heartfelt apology goes out to this young man and his family. I will make it my purpose to not allow this organization to let him, his family, or Waukegan down again.”
O’Connor and the family met with the Waukegan Police Department on Feb. 23.
“What’s the saddest part of all this?” O’Connor said at a press conference. “While he’s being arrested, the person who did (the shooting) is free to go and harm other people, because they didn’t do the basic detective work of figuring out where he was at the time it happened.”
O’Connor criticized the interrogation tactic, saying the video was too much for Williams’ mother to watch.
“It was horrible, it was horrible to watch. His mom was so disturbed she had to leave the room.”
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