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