A 23-year-old man on pretrial release for a gun case is accused of shooting an 8-year-old girl during a confrontation last month on the Near South Side. Kenneth Williams has been ordered detained as prosecutors revealed disturbing new details about the incident.
According to a prosecution detention petition, the shooting occurred around 9:45 p.m. on June 24 in the 3000 block of South State Street. Chicago police recovered video evidence, shell casings, and multiple eyewitness identifications linking Williams to the shooting.
The girl was shot in the leg while riding in the cargo area of a vehicle that was returning from a beach outing, according to prosecutors. The child and several others had stopped at a gas station in the 3100 block of South Michigan Avenue to stretch and use the restroom when a woman in a white Chevrolet accused the group of hitting her daughter with a car, prosecutors said. She left momentarily, then returned with a man who threatened the group.
Prosecutors said the victims drove away and tried to evade the white Chevrolet by making multiple turns, but the car continued to follow them. When the driver of the victims’ vehicle finally stopped near 30th and State to confront the woman, bystanders who knew the woman tried to coax the group from their vehicle, according to the detention petition. Cellphone footage recorded by a passenger in the victims’ car captured the escalating confrontation, including Williams, who allegedly tried to coax the victims out of their car by assuring them that nobody on the sidewalk was armed.
Moments later, Williams pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired four rounds at the back of the vehicle as it pulled away, the petition said. One bullet struck the 8-year-old in her leg. The driver flagged down a nearby ambulance, and the EMTs took the child to Comer Children’s Hospital. She was released later that night.
Surveillance video from a nearby CPD camera captured Williams raising his arm and firing the shots, though the image quality was poor, prosecutors said. Investigators recovered two 9mm shell casings at the scene and ultimately identified him through photo line-ups and identification by police officers who had dealt with him before.
At a detention, Judge Ankur Srivastava ordered Williams held in custody, saying, “This is about as dangerous as one can behave.” Williams is charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery by discharging a firearm, and aggravated assault by discharging a firearm.
He was arrested this week at the Cook County jail, where he has been locked up on a gun charge since being arrested at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on July 12. Security officers manning a metal detector at the hospital entrance allegedly found a loaded pistol in his backpack and summoned police. Prosecutors said that the gun is not the one used to shoot the girl last month.
According to court records, Williams was also on pretrial release for an unrelated gun charge in another jurisdiction and had just served a two-day sentence for a drug conviction four days before the shooting.
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