For Willie Williams Sr. and his wife Indira, four years of suffering could be near an end.
Chicago Police have identified the man who they say shot their son once in the head as he walked away from a fight outside the Ford City Movie Theater in April of 2006. But something all too rare has to happen first: someone will have to turn him in.
The Chicago Police Department on Wednesday used the Williams' story to reinforce a public service campaign launched last month dubbed Silence Kills. The public service announcements feature the mothers and fathers of murder victims who are demanding an end to the code of silence that equates cooperation with authorities to "snitching."
Police say Eddie Fenton killed Willie Williams III and announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
“I’m asking all mothers, brothers, sisters friends,” Indira Williams pleaded. "Someone knows.”
“We are empowered by the community,” Police Superintendent Jody Weis said. “If the community does not stand up and say enough, the criminals will continue to thrive and prosper.”
Members of the Chicago Police Cold Case Squad on Wednesday went door to door in the area of 69th Street between Western and California, where Fenton was known to live.
“We know people know where he is,” said St. Sabina Pastor Michael Pfleger, who has worked with Willie Williams Sr. for the past four years to keep attention focused on the case. "We need the community to come forward. We need the community to break the silence so that we can apprehend him.”
Ideally, Pfleger said, Fenton would turn himself in. But if that doesn’t happen, police say anyone with information on his whereabouts should call the Cold Case Squad or 911.
The Silence Kills public service campaign is being funded with $500,000 in federal stimulus money The three-year grant will also pay for a full-time position within the CAPS program and Chicago Public Schools to come up with an education program that will challenge the code of silence.
