Body Cam Turned Off During Fatal Waukegan Police Shooting

WAUKEGAN, IL — City officials released videos Wednesday showing some of the moments leading up to and immediately following last week's fatal police shooting. The videos show the officer who fired the fatal shots did not turn on his body-worn camera until after the deadly encounter.

The roughly eight minutes of videos show the Waukegan police officer, who has since been terminated "for multiple policy and procedure violations," got out of his car during a pursuit and fired seven times into a car just after midnight on Oct. 21.

The driver, 20-year-old Tafara Williams, was seriously injured and remains hospitalized. The passenger, her 19-year-old boyfriend Marcellis Stinnette, died within minutes.

The earliest of the videos shows an officer approach Williams and Stinnette as they sit in a car outside her home.

"You're Marcellis, right?" the unidentified officer said. "Yeah, you're under arrest, man."

"Why?" Williams asks.

"Because I said," the officer says. "Come on, show me the hands, pal. I ain't playing with you because I know you. Marcellis you're under arrest. Because he got a warrant."

While the officer has a hand on the side of her car, Williams speeds away, according to video from the first officer's body-worn camera.

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Audio from the second officer's dashboard camera kicks in after he activates his car's sirens. It shows Williams leading police on a chase down South Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue before driving into a wire at Helmhoz Avenue.

"They just 50," the second officer says over the radio, referring to the police code for a crash. Though it is not captured in any of the videos, audio indicates the officer jumps out of his squad car and yells "Get out of the f---" before the sound of an engine and seven shots.

After the shooting, the now-fired officer turns on his body camera and immediately begins shouting at the occupants of the car into which he had just fired more than half a dozen bullets.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Williams appears to yell.

"I was right behind you and you almost tried to run me over!" the unidentified officer shouts.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see that," she can be heard responding.

RELATED: Woman Shot By Officer Says Waukegan Police Let Her Boyfriend Die

The family of Tafara Williams viewed the footage earlier Wednesday, according to their attorneys, Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci. Following the public release of the video clips, the civil rights lawyers said the videos show police immediately sought to create a misleading account of the circumstances that led up to the shooting.

Crump said it was a "clear and disturbing case" of police manufacturing a false narrative.

"This presents an incredible obstacle to learning the truth in this tragic case," Crump said in a statement. "Body cams act as an essential bridge between law enforcement and the public they are sworn to protect while helping ensure transparency and accountability, and building the trust that is still so painfully lacking.”

Romanucci said the videos show that the officer's use of deadly force was inappropriate for the circumstances.

“Furthermore, the officer had an ‘oh crap’ moment, knew what he was doing, and his first words when he turned on his body cameras after the shooting were to create a false narrative for what had transpired to justify the shooting of innocent people," Romanucci said. "The lack of transparency here is shameful. Either the officer affirmatively chose not to turn on his body cam, or there is additional footage that we have not yet seen.”

Attorneys for the city said the release of additional videos of the incident is possible before the end of the week.