A Chicago woman who slashed and stabbed strangers in a string of random attacks across the city will serve a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to multiple felony charges.
Court records show 35-year-old Shaynella Williams pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated battery stemming from a series of unprovoked stabbings in 2022 and 2023. The cases were handled by three different judges, resulting in an effective sentence of five years in prison plus a consecutive two-year term.
The first attack linked to Williams happened on June 18, 2022, when a woman walking home from the beach was suddenly slashed on her arm in the 1700 block of West North Avenue in Bucktown.
Prosecutors said Williams parked her red Kia across the street, crossed over, and made a swiping motion at the unsuspecting victim. The woman required 13 stitches to close the wound. Police tracked Williams down through the Kia’s license plate, but she was released pretrial after paying a $2,000 bail deposit.
While on bail, prosecutors said, Williams struck again. On the afternoon of January 8, 2023, she allegedly carried out a spree of random stabbings across the city.
At a McDonald’s at 2317 North Cicero Avenue, Williams walked inside and jabbed a knife into the back of a grandparent before stabbing his wife on the head as they dined with their four grandchildren. Customers photographed her fleeing to the same red Kia, and investigators later confirmed her phone pinged in the area.
Minutes later, in the 5300 block of West Lawrence Avenue, Williams stabbed a woman carrying a large plant, leaving her with a leg wound that doctors closed with three staples, prosecutors said. Soon after, Williams allegedly pulled up next to another woman in the 4500 block of North Milwaukee Avenue and stabbed her in the back. Surveillance video captured much of the spree, according to prosecutors.
Days later, on January 12, 2023, police said Williams entered a laundromat in the 4300 block of West 26th Street and stabbed a 61-year-old woman in the leg before fleeing in her red car. The victim was critically injured.
One of Williams’ attorneys during early court proceedings said she is a licensed practical nurse who lived with her mother and two children, ages 14 and 17, at the time of the crimes.
Under Illinois law, the sentence will be cut in half for good behavior, and Williams will receive further reductions from nearly 1,000 days of credit she accrued in the Cook County Jail.
