[Peace] Family of Police Shooter Left Out in the Cold

[Brian Dolinar]

Our good friend Annette Williams is the sister-in-law of Donnell Clemons,
involved in the police shooting incident.
This is the story she told me.

BD

Thursday night, after three Champaign police officers were shot in West Side
Park, spokesperson for the Champaign police department Rene Dunn said they
did not want to release the names of the officers before contacting their
families. They did not want the families to hear about it in the news before
the police department had a chance to talk to them. Unfortunately, the
Champaign police department did not practice the same common decency for the
family of the shooter.

A member Donnell Clemons' family called me Monday to tell me the obstacles
they were facing in trying to see their loved one, or even get an update on
his status. They called Champaign police Thursday night and Friday morning
but were denied confirmation of the name of the man who was involved in the
shooting.

The family finally got through to nurses at Carle hospital and got a status
report from a doctor. Clemons had six bullet wounds, a collapsed lung, was
on a ventilator, and had a blood transfusion. He was in critical condition,
virtually on his death bed, but the family was not allowed to see him. The
doctor told the family they would have to talk to the police to see Clemons,
but the Champaign police were still not talking to them.

The family was finally able to see Clemons Wednesday night. He was coherent
and talking. His side of the story was different than the one Chief Finney
gave at his press conference. Clemons said the police shot first.

Clemons' photo was quickly released to the media and was posted on the front
page of the *News-Gazette*. He has been portrayed as a crazed homeless man
who just spontaneously started shooting at police Thursday night in West
Side Park. He was a man with no roots and no family. Of course, this was the
minimal amount of information they had got from Champaign police. Talking
with Clemons' sister-in-law, I got a another side to the story.

Clemons has been homeless off-and-on for at least ten years in Champaign. He
used to use the restrooms in the Champaign police station, so the police
surely knew who he was.

In the last month, a 72 year-old man who Clemons was living with and was
close to passed away. Clemons was emotionally distraught and back out on the
streets. What his experience with the police may have been in the last month
or in the past years is not known. From what the family told me, Clemons,
like many black men in the community, does not trust the police. Chief
Finney himself has acknowledged this broken relationship in the past.

Again, we do not want to jump to any conclusions about what happened that
Thursday night. But as the independent media, we want to ensure that both
sides of the story get told.

We all have members of our family who have not always made the right
decisions, and who have gotten into trouble. We should remember that even
the worst criminal has a brother, a sister, who are also members of our
community. They deserve the same respect as anyone else.
-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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