'Jerrell, Stop, Bro!': Shooting Victim Recorded Gunman On Snapchat, Prosecutors Say

EVANSTON, IL — A man who was shot in the stomach Tuesday in Evanston recorded video of the gunman in the act, authorities said.

Jerrell Williams, 33, of the 1800 block of Lake Street in Evanston, got into a fight with a longtime acquaintance at a barber shop on the Friday prior to the shooting, authorities said.

Williams told the 34-year-old Evanston man, with whom he had never quarreled until recently, that he would "get" him, according to Assistant State's Attorney Nick Campbell.

As the man got out of his car near the intersection of Dodge Avenue and Dempster Street, Williams walked up to him, pulled out a gun and shot him once in the stomach, Campbell said Friday at Williams' initial court appearance.

“There is video of the defendant actually committing the offense,” Campbell said.

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The gunshot victim was on Snapchat at the time and recorded the shooting and its aftermath on his phone, according to the prosecutor.

Detectives reviewed the footage and reported that it showed Williams with a gun.

"Jerrell! Stop, bro," the victim allegedly says in the video.

Evanston police arrested Williams on Wednesday in the 100 block of Dodge Avenue, and prosecutors approved one count of attempted first-degree murder and petitioned for him to be held ahead of trial.

“If he was given house arrest," Campbell said, "I think [electronic monitoring] would only tell the court where the offender was when he committed his next crime, it won’t prevent him from committing any crimes”

Assistant Public Defender Gregory Danek said Williams lives with his family and has been working and taking classes at a barber school.

"If self-defense becomes a question in this case, simply because someone discharges a firearm and there's great bodily harm, doesn't mean that that defense wouldn't be successful," Danek said.

"Such actions are, and can be, and regularly are upheld as justified under the doctrine of self-defense," he said, arguing in favor of Williams's pretrial release.

Williams has five prior felony convictions including a 2018 resisting arrest for which he was sentenced to two years in state prison and convictions for unlawful use of a weapons in 2021 and 2023, each of which led to one-year sentences.

Cook County Associate Judge Anthony Calabrese ordered Williams detained while awaiting trial. He is due back in court on Aug. 29.

"The facts of the case are weighty against the defendant," Calabrese said. "But if you look at the criminal record of the defendant ... Now we've graduated to the circumstances where he's actually using those weapons, carrying the weapon again in violation of the law, and actually doing grave bodily harm to and individual who gets shot and nearly killed."

In what authorities have described as an unrelated matter, a 50-year-old Evanston man shot himself in the hand accidentally in the 1700 block of Dodge Avenue about 30 minutes after Williams attempted to murder the man with whom he had gotten into a fistfight in a barbershop.

Related:

• Double Shooting On Dempster Street In Evanston, No One In Custody
• 4 People Shot In Evanston In Under 24 Hours, Including 3 On Same Block
• Exchange Of Gunfire In Evanston Part Of 'Ongoing Dispute,' Police Say