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They took my soul’: Grieving Bessemer mom says slain 18-year-old was set up to be killed

Lunatic Frank

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They took my soul’: Grieving Bessemer mom says slain 18-year-old was set up to be killed​


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Orlando Keith Williams Jr., 18, was shot to death Saturday, April 10, 2021, at the Comfort Inn in Bessemer. (Contributed)

The mother of a Bessemer teen fatally shot at the Comfort Inn said she is heartbroken over her son’s death and believes he was set up to be killed.


“I’m not taking it well,’' said April Chaney. “Half these children that were in that room grew up at my mama’s front door. They set my baby up. They played him.”




“I treated them like they were my children,’' she said, “and they stole my baby’s life.’'


Orlando Keith Williams Jr., 18, was shot inside the second-floor hotel room at 11:03 p.m. Saturday. He was pronounced dead on the scene at 11:32 p.m., according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.
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A shooting inside Bessemer's Comfort Inn on Saturday, April 10, 2021 left one person dead.

Chaney said she believes her son was killed as part of an ongoing feud that has led to multiple shootings in Bessemer over at least the past six months. Williams was one of several people wounded in October when his friend, 18-year-old Mikel Cooper, a senior at Bessemer City High School, was fatally shot. That shooting happened at 5:15 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 15th Street North in Bessemer. Cooper died on the scene and three other teens, including the 16-year-old suspect, were wounded in the exchange of gunfire. Williams was shot as well as a 13-year-old.

The deadly shooting was followed by at least five other shootings that police believe are in retaliation for the killing of Cooper. One person – a grandmother – was injured in one of those shootings. They happened both in Bessemer and Brighton.



Chaney said she said she believes it’s also connected to January killing of 19-year-old Mikel Ja’Darius Pickens. That shooting was reported to have happened at Urban Market Grocery Store at 200 Ninth Street South.



Bessemer police said the investigation into Williams’ death is progressing, but no arrests have yet been made.



Since the previous shootings, Chaney said, someone has shot multiple times at her son’s grandmother’s house and his father’s house

On Saturday, she said, she dropped her son off at his grandmother’s house. She said she tried to stop him from going anywhere, afraid he would be hurt or worse. “I said, ‘Baby you can’t trust them.’ He said, ‘Mama, I’m not going to let them take me out. I got this.’’



She said he then went to the Comfort Inn to gamble. “They knew he loved to gamble. That was his weakness,’' she said. “I said, ‘Why are you hanging with them? They don’t mean you no good.’ He said, ‘Mama, I’m not going to let them kill me.’’'



Chaney said she called her son shortly before 11 p.m. “I could hear scuffling and then the phone went out,’' she said. “I called back, and he didn’t answer. Then my sister called me and said, ‘Get to the Comfort Inn. Your son has been shot.’”

She said she’s devastated at the loss of her only son. “He was there for me and all his friends,’' she said. “They took my soul.”



Anyone with information is asked to call Bessemer police at 425-2411, the Tip Line at 205- 428-3541 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
 

BoujeeBae

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A mother can raise her son in the church, with love, good manners and upbringing but the friends and associates he keeps, is beyond her control.

This is devastating, her worse fear came through. I pray for her comfort and healing. Sad.
 

Lunatic Frank

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A mother can raise her son in the church, with love, good manners and upbringing but the friends and associates he keeps, is beyond her control.

This is devastating, her worse fear came through. I pray for her comfort and healing. Sad.
True. Also when I was coming up church going choir boy was seen as lame were often teased for being percieved as "soft" many act a certain way to fit in
 

BxtchImLit

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Dang smh. RIP to him. I hate hearing about anyone being killed but hotel murders just do not sit right with me...
 

Lunatic Frank

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The madness in Birmingham and Jefferson County area continues , police just found a dead body behind the dumpster on Airport Messer Highway
 

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Incokneegrow

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so sad. if she hear scuffling when he called, i wonder if he was calling her for help or something
 

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I wonder if the youngster was involved in any “shenanigans”, or was he the by-product of other's activities? Rest well, baby Orlando.
 

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This is heartbreaking. Prayers for his mother and family. May Orlando Rest In Heavenly Peace.
 

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This is why I don’t believe people when they say boys are easy to raise . We have to worry about shootings , street life , prison , guns ...

I have a young son and is worried . I’m not Even hood but a lot of these young boys have hood families and be into drugs and guns . 14 years old was car jacking and got arrested

how can I allow my son to have friends without him getting caught up with street stuff , since that is all they do .
 

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He loved to gamble.... at 18?! That is nothing but trouble! He could have won and they shot him or lost and they shot him
 

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This is so sad. RIP. Prayers up for the mom. He was so young. I hope that it wasn’t gang violence.. if so then there will be another shooting. It’s always a cycle.

Bessemer is a little dangerous. It ha a pretty high crime rate.

Birmingham is not what it used to be.

I don’t know what’s happening around here in some of these towns and cities but it seems like there’s been an increase in suspicious activity and shootings.

This is possibly unrelated but I think that people are coming from different states down here and they’re bringing their drama and bad situations down here.

There’s been a few fatal shootings down here over the course of 2021.. and in some of them some of the people doing the shooting or getting killed weren’t from here originally.
 
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