We'd say "unbelievable" is it wasn't something we've read far too often in one of the local rags:
- Jerome Williams kissed his mother on her forehead Monday night in her Englewood apartment house when he told her he was going to run a store errand.
Two hours later, the 27-year-old was killed when, police say, he exchanged gunfire with Chicago police at a Family Dollar Store a few blocks away, leaving one officer wounded. Police said the shooting was sparked by Williams -- a parolee who was also a father of two with a third child on the way -- sticking up the store.
Gee whiz. A parolee in trouble with the law. And with three different babies by three different women. What a fucking surprise. But wait, it gets better:
- Court records show that Williams was sentenced to 5 years in prison for aggravated discharge of a firearm in 2001 and 14 years for conspiracy to commit murder in 2005. He was paroled in December 2009 for the conspiracy conviction, and his parole was set to end later this year, according to a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Let's see - convicted in 2001; sentence to 14 years; that should be sentence discharged in 2015. But he was paroled in 2009, a mere 8 years, which isn't even close to what "truth-in-sentencing" might lead you to believe - oh wait, we don't have truth-in-sentencing here. Might this be another one of Quinn's 1,800 early parolees? But wait, it gets even better:
- “What made him go in that store? I don’t know. I don’t know what was going through his mind,” his mother, Vanessa Williams, said Tuesday afternoon from the hallway outside her apartment. “But I know he’s not a killer.”
He's not a killer - just a convicted aggravated discharge of a firearm offender, convicted murder conspirator, AND attempted murderer of police officers. We guess it's not from lack of trying though, just lack of better aim. And the cherry on top?
- Vanessa Williams had an older son, Tony Williams, who was shot and killed on the South Side in June 1999. She has two other children, a son and daughter.
Evidently, this absentee momma has a habit of raising children with no impulse control, easy access to illegal firearms, and a nasty habit of being on the wrong end of gun crimes. And the Tribune company gives her ink to spout her bullshit while we pay for it.
UPDATE: We're being told our calendar and math are wrong in the comment section and that he served less than 4 years on the second charge.
UPDATE: We're being told our calendar and math are wrong in the comment section and that he served less than 4 years on the second charge.