Tafara Williams is raising small children while still fighting to clear a felony charge stemming from the night a Waukegan police officer shot her and killed her fiancé, Marcellis Stinnette, in October 2020. Williams did not speak publicly at the time of a new report on her case, but her attorney is pressing the claim that the charge against her was built on a lie.
According to ABC7 Chicago, Williams and Stinnette were sitting in a parked car in Waukegan when Officer James Keating approached the vehicle. Williams and Stinnette drove away from that first stop, and Keating claimed her car struck him. Then-Officer Dante Salinas later located and pulled them over, then opened fire into the car five times at that later stop, wounding Williams and killing the 19-year-old Stinnette, according to the Chicago Tribune. Salinas fired the shots just 12 seconds after walking up to the vehicle, per CBS News Chicago.
Williams later told the Chicago Sun-Times that she and Stinnette both had their hands raised and were unarmed when the shooting happened. Police reports acknowledged that no weapon was found in the vehicle, NBC Chicago reported at the time. Salinas was fired from the department three days after the shooting over multiple policy violations, including failing to activate his body-worn camera until after he had already fired.
A Felony Charge That Followed the Shooting
Even as she recovered from her wounds, Williams was arrested and charged with aggravated fleeing in connection with the same encounter. CBS News Chicago's report from the time of the shooting noted she was charged with aggravated fleeing, and the Chicago Tribune later reported she was released on a recognizance bond on the charge.
Williams's attorney, Blake Horowitz, has argued the charge should never have existed. According to the same ABC7 Chicago report, Horowitz said the charges against Williams should never have been filed by Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart in the first place. Horowitz has also alleged that Williams and Stinnette were racially discriminated against during the encounter, the station reported.
Attorney Alleges Keating Lied in Police Reports
Central to Horowitz's push to have the charge dropped is his claim that Officer Keating repeatedly lied on police reports, including the one used to justify Williams's case, according to ABC7 Chicago's reporting. Horowitz said the grand jury that considered the matter heard testimony from someone other than Keating himself, and that the false representations in the underlying police report were never presented to that grand jury, the station reported. He has described the grand jury's review as having ignored those false representations entirely.
Horowitz has described Williams as courageous and doing her best to continue her life, per the same ABC7 Chicago account, as she raises small children in the years since the shooting.
Salinas Faces Murder Charges, Already Convicted in Separate Case
Salinas was charged with three counts of second-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Stinnette's death, according to CBS News Chicago. A grand jury returned those indictments in September 2022, nearly two years after the shooting, as reported by WTTW News.
In a separate case tied to the 2019 arrest of Angel Salgado, a judge found Salinas guilty of one felony count of official misconduct on September 26, 2025, according to a statement from the Lake County State's Attorney's Office.
Keating's Own Discipline
Keating, the officer who approached the car and said it struck him, was terminated by the Waukegan Police Department in March 2022 over three alleged misconduct incidents, according to court filings reviewed by CourtListener. Keating subsequently sued the City of Waukegan, but a federal court dismissed his lawsuit, concluding his complaint failed to state a plausible claim for relief.
