ILLINOIS COP WHO SHOT COUPLE IS FIRED

Attorneys representing a Black woman who was shot and wounded inside a vehicle by a suburban Chicago police officer who also fatally shot her 19-year-old boyfriend called the officer’s firing “a first step in police accountability” but said they are pressing ahead with their own probe of the shooting.

Waukegan Police Chief Wayne Walles announced late Friday the firing of the officer who fatally shot Marcellis Stinnette, a Black man, and wounded Tafara Williams, 20. Walles said in a brief statement that the male officer had committed “multiple policy and procedure violations.”

No other details, including the officer’s name, were provided in the announcement, which came shortly after Lake County’s chief prosecutor said the FBI would join Illinois State Police in investigating Tuesday’s shooting.

Authorities have said the shooting that killed Stinnette and wounded Williams occurred following what they have described as a traffic stop. The officer who shot the couple is Hispanic and had been with the Waukegan Police Department for five years.

Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio M. Romanucci, who are representing Williams, responded to the officer’s firing in a statement that also said they were moving forward “with our own investigation into the facts of this tragedy.”

Waukegan police have said Williams was driving and Stinnette was a passenger in a vehicle that fled a traffic stop conducted by a White officer late Tuesday and that the vehicle was later spotted by another officer. Police said that as the second officer approached, the vehicle started moving in reverse and the officer — fearing for his safety — opened fire. No weapon was found in the vehicle.

BRIAN HILL AP People hold signs during a rally Thursday for Marcellis Stinnette, who was killed by Waukegan police in Waukegan, Ill.