LSA senior Tamara Sonya Williams pleaded for her life yesterday, but nothing would stop her boyfriend. Not even the threat of a campus police officer's bullet.
The 20-year-old ran bleeding upstairs from her basement and desperately knocked on a neighbor's window before she was stabbed to death about 200 feet from the front door of her North Campus apartment complex - where a Department of Public Safety officer fatally shot Kevin Nelson after he refused to drop the knife.
Yesterday's shooting marks the first time a DPS officer fired a weapon while on duty.
"My daughter was a people person," said her mother, Yvonne Williams, of Detroit. "All I know is that two young lives have been stamped out for nothing."
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| MARGARET MYERS/Daily LSA senior Samira Bond holds a candle in mourning during a vigil held last night outside of the home of Tamara Sonya Williams, who was stabbed to death early yesterday morning. Bond was among about 150 mourners. |
"All of us are horrified at what, by all accounts, appears to have been a vicious criminal assault," Bollinger said.
But yesterday's apparent case of domestic violence was not the first Williams had to face. In 1995, after campus police were called twice to Williams' home, Nelson was convicted of domestic assault and battery and was put on probation. The same year, Williams received a restraining order against him, said Leo Heatley, director of DPS. Neighbors said they heard the couple fighting as recently as three weeks ago.
Williams, a "talented and gifted" student who would have celebrated her 21st birthday Monday, had planned to graduate in May with a general studies degree and was deciding whether to apply to law school or the University's School of Social Work. She had even ordered a class ring.
A hard worker, student and mother, she balanced classes with a part-time job at LSA Media Services while raising her 2 1/2-year-old daughter.
"It's so amazing what type of person she was," said Tamika Pennamon, her best friend and LSA senior. "She was in school, worked and raised her daughter. Any little thing she could do, she would."
But Williams' life ended in tragedy when her live-in boyfriend stabbed her to death early yesterday morning at her home in the Northwood apartment building complex. The incident caused such an enormous amount of commotion that numerous neighbors called 911 for help and tried to break up the dispute with baseball bats.
"We are both going to burn in hell," screamed Nelson as he repeatedly stabbed Williams, according to Chris Baumann, 27, a neighbor.
Other neighbors heard similar "irrational yelling."
"He was yelling, 'I had enough of you. Look what you made me do,'" said Desmond Flagg, 16.
When police arrived at the 2200 block of Stone Drive, they found Nelson, 26, outside the home, standing over Williams and repeatedly stabbing her, DPS officials said. The responding officer, a 2-year veteran with the campus police fired two shots, killing Nelson, who is not affiliated with the University.
The officer, who's name will not be released until an investigation is concluded, was put on administrative leave according to standard DPS policy.
Vice President for University Relations Walter Harrison spoke at yesterday's press conference about the tragic loss to the community and the University.
"Grief and sadness (is what) the whole University feels," Harrison said. "A talented and gifted senior at the University was a loss to the entire University of Michigan. All of us grieve with her family during this sad period."
At 12:17 a.m. yesterday, DPS received the first of many 911 calls regarding a domestic dispute at the Northwood Family Housing Complex on the University's North Campus.
"I was awakened out of my sleep by screaming," said Chris Baumann, a neighbor of Williams'. "I dialed campus security."
A number of neighbors saw her being stabbed and heard her screams as they called police and attempted to stop the attack.
"I went out to try to stop it, but when I was about 15 feet away, I saw the knife," said Flagg, a 16-year-old Northwood resident, whose mother is a University student. "I just kind of panicked. I didn't know if he would come at me."
Flagg said that Nelson did not acknowledge that a half dozen neighbors were watching, and instead kept stabbing the woman and shouting obscenities.
"Everyone was begging him to get away from her," Baumann said.
"He just kept yelling 'Look what she made me do' and 'I've had enough, it's over,'" Flagg said.
Baumann also heard Nelson "ranting and raving about dying."
"I ran to the house, called the cops, and looked for a bat or something," Flagg said.
A DPS officer arrived on the scene to find Nelson bloody and wielding a knife. The officer told Nelson to put the weapon down. When he did not respond, the officer shot Nelson twice, fatally wounding him. Both Williams and Nelson died during surgery at University Hospitals.
Venessa Coleman Barns, who co-chairs the Presidential Task Force for Violence Against Women, said the neighbors responded appropriately to the incident by calling 911.
"The community responded the best way they could. They did not turn their backs," Barns said. "We need to get the message across that this violence is behavior that we will not tolerate."
Williams lived in the Northwood complex with her young daughter, Kiera. Nelson, who has been Williams off-and-on boyfriend for about three years, moved into the apartment about six months ago.
Kiera was placed in protective custody yesterday and then turned over to her maternal grandparents, who live in Detroit. Kiera's father was stabbed to death last year, and neighbors are working to organize a fund for Kiera.
While Nelson had lived in the Northwood apartment complex two years ago, he had just moved back in with Williams about six months ago and the couple had fought sporadically since then.
"They just moved in a little while ago," Flagg said.
Another neighbor, who asked that his name not be used, said that this was not the first time the couple fought.
"They have a history of fighting. I've seen Tamara bruised a couple of times," he said, adding that he had heard the two "argue about three weeks ago."
Residents around Northwood, a series of two-story wooden duplex apartments, where University married couples and students with children live, were shocked by the incident. Most heard about the tragedy when they awoke to police cars and a media frenzy this morning.
"In the morning, I met some police officers," said Seung Lee, a Northwood resident. "They asked me some questions and I told them I hadn't heard any noise."
Fidelia Friedman, another Northwood resident, said that Northwood has a family atmosphere.
"We're so used to seeing everybody outside. The kids play (outside)," Friedman said. "Sometimes people get mad, but we didn't expect this. It's unbelievable."
Residents said that Williams usually kept to herself, though they traded greetings when they passed each other near the complex.
Pennamon said she is in a state of denial over the murder.
"I'm very disturbed," Pennamon said. "I can't believe that I saw her just yesterday." The two friends planned to work together yesterday on a paper that is due for a class next week.
Pennamon also said that her boyfriend had talked to Nelson on Monday, when he talked positively about his relationship with Williams. She said that Williams had forgiven Nelson for the previous abuse charges.
"Tamara was a forgiving person, that's the kind of person she was," Pennamon said.
"My boyfriend talked to Kevin yesterday about Tamara's 21st birthday and what we were going to do for it," Pennamon said. "Kevin told my boyfriend that everything was OK, that he and Tamara were back on track. They were straight again."
Pennamon said something must have happened late in the night.
"I just don't understand because Tamara told me everything," Pennamon said. "She would have said last night when I called that something was wrong."
At a news conference yesterday morning, University officials acknowledged that a lot of questions are still left unanswered - the foremost question being "Why?"
"We just learned about this at 12:17 a.m. We don't know all the answers," said University Dean of Students Royster Harper.
DPS spokesperson Elizabeth Hall said DPS will release any unknown information as soon as the police unearth details about the crime.
When the DPS investigation of the incident is complete, it will be turned over to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office.
- Daily Staff Reporters Alice Robinson and Jennifer Yachnin contributed to this report.
WARREN ZINN/Daily
Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford, Director of Housing Alan Levy and police and housing officials remove Tamara Williams' personal possessions from her apartment and load them into her car for transport to her family members.
09-24-97
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