Community protests after Illinois police shoot T-Boz’s cousin 18 times

Sep 25, 2017

TLC’s T-Boz took to social media after her cousin, Eddie Russell Jr., was reportedly shot eighteen times by Illinois police.

Russel, 25, was a suspect in an armed bank robbery on Wednesday before he was shot and killed hours late during a standoff with police. According to police, after a nearly two-hour standoff with authorities, Russell emerged from his home with a gun raised before five or six special response officers fired on him.

However, T-Boz refuted that idea, writing that her cousin had been killed in an example of excessive force by police, who didn’t have their body cams on during the incident.

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“My Cousin Was Shot 18 Times Including the Face and Back of His Head! He Harmed NO ONE EVER! He Had Mental Health Issues AND THE COPS KNEW THAT! Anything he’s ever Done Was minor and NON VIOLENT! Eddie Russell Jr -A Human-Being -A Son- Brother-Friend-Nephew – Cousin-HUMAN! The cops told his mother to call him out on a bullhorn ? USED her saying “WE WILL GIVE HIM THE HELP HE NEEDS” and He Came Out Because He Heard His Mother and They used beyond excessive force to gun him down also with heavy artillery used in warfare! 18 times? Shot eighteen times???” T-Boz wrote in part in a lengthy social media post, going on to claim that Russel hadn’t been holding a gun and that the family had been lied to when police told them that he was at a hospital.

Since the shooting, around 30 people, most of them friends and family of Russell, have marched in protest of the shooting, calling for justice and demanding that police release more details on what happened.