Mourners gather at night vigil

Less than 24 hours after a brutal murder cut her life short, mourners gathered near the scene of the crime to hold a candlelight vigil for Tamara Sonya Williams.

At dusk, family, friends and members of the University community gathered to honor and remember Williams with poetry, condolences and memories.

About 100 people attended the event, including dozens of local television reporters.

Williams' friend and neighbor, Rachelle Johnson, opened the vigil with solemn words and cautioned the audience about domestic violence, the apparent cause of Williams' death.

Williams was stabbed to death by her live-in boyfriend, Kevin Nelson, who was then fatally shot by a Department of Public Safety officer.

BOHDAN DAMIAN CAP/Daily Lashawn Reed seeks consolation from a friend yesterday after the candlelight vigil for Tamara Williams on North Campus.

"What's most important is I don't want Tamara to die in vain," Johnson said. "If someone is interested in volunteering at SAFEHouse or SAPAC ... I think that will make the difference."

Many speakers stressed the importance of halting abusive relationships as early as possible.

"The most important thing I'd like to point out is that abuse of women happens everyday nationwide," said Rebecca Phillips, who came to mourn the loss of her friend.

"It's a lot harder to live in an abusive situation than to bring it up to the person being abused," she said.

Many community members said they felt a sense of regret that they could not have prevented yesterday's tragedy.

"My wife was up studying and I was on the computer," said neighbor Todd Maddock. "We heard the noise. We heard the sirens and the gun shots. We didn't understand what was happening. We were too apathetic. Somehow we could have done more.

"Our heart goes out to her family and their daughter, especially because we have a daughter," Maddock said. "This is something that people should really be angry about."

University officials who spoke to the mourners offered their grave condolences.

"The University mourns the loss of Tamara Williams," University President Lee Bollinger said after the vigil. "It appears to have been a vicious criminal assault. You just grieve for her family and especially for her child. It's just incomprehensible to live with something like this."

But the sense of loss was not isolated to Williams': Terriea Nelson interrupted the vigil with an angry outburst demanding that the media and the community not overlook the death of her brother, Kevin Nelson.

Williams' boyfriend and a father of four, Nelson stabbed Williams repeatedly before a DPS officer shot him dead.

"He's a victim too," Terriea Nelson said. "He lost his life, too. Nobody said nothing about the family he left."

Nelson said her brother and Williams once shared a loving relationship.

"It wasn't just a troubled relationship," Nelson said. "They loved each other too much - they loved each other to death. I told him to leave her alone."

Nelson said she was skeptical of the action of the DPS officers and wondered if the shooting could have been avoided.

"Did they have

to shoot him? Why take two lives?," she asked. "That's too tragic to deal with. His kids will have to know that they don't have a father."

Residents said the Northwood community is usually a safe place where families and their children can freely interact.

"We have a daughter the same age (as Williams' daughter). I feel really sad that she's gone," said Northwood resident Becky Hauge.

"It's too bad she didn't cry out for help sooner," Hauge said, adding that she and her husband went to the vigil to "pay respects."

Others who call Northwood home said the community's strong sense of family was now shaken, but not broken, by yesterday morning's events.

"Even though we are only here for a couple years, this is our family," said Engineering graduate student Robert Hauge.

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