“Cops shot and killed my mentally ill cousin,” TLC’s T-Boz says her brother was shot 18 times by Illinois cops

Wikimedia Commons/Twitter

T-Boz Watkins has alleged that Illinois cops shot her mentally unstable cousin over 18 times, leading him to his death.

The incident took place on 20 September in Peoria, Illinois – when the police were called following a bank robbery, with Watkins’ cousin, Eddie Russell Jr. being identified as the suspect with the help of the surveillance video.

Police then traced Russel down to his place, where they surrounded the building and shot him several times after he emerged out of the house.

According to cops, Eddie was walking aggressively towards the officers, holding a gun on his hand – a claim T-Boz has strongly disputed.

The 47 year old singer also said that the cops tried to ‘lure’ her 25 year old cousin out of the house by “using” his mother and that his mental health issues were already known to cops.

Watkins posted a lengthy series of tweets disputing several other claims from the story, and stressing on how she didn’t believe he had a gun with him at all.

Here are some of them:


(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Meanwhile, the coroner has confirmed that Eddie was shot approximately 17-20 times and that they have also ‘recovered’ the handgun which was used in the robbery.

Investigations are still underway by Illinois police department.

Thoughts?