Smart or nah?
The video shows investigators could not understand why anyone would bring guns into a courthouse complex.
“When I first came in here, I was trying to talk to the officer … before I stepped in …’I got something.’ But, everything happened so fast in the line,” Lanell Williams said.
A deputy asked him, “What was the main purpose of coming down here?”
Williams responded, “We was being chased.”
The deputy wanted to know, “Chased by who?”
And, Wiliams said, “Her ex.”
Investigators found Lanell Williams had come downtown with his mother, Andrea, to see about a protection order.
But, he was vague, saying: “The story is so deep … you’ve gotta talk to her about that. We’re being chased by multiple cars. That’s why, if y’all noticed, I turn my head because I don’t know is who.”
Deputies arrested the son and the mother saying, at the checkpoint, they found her actions a little odd. So, they hauled her in, too.
At one point, she asked a deputy, “My baby OK?”
The deputy answered, “He’s OK. He’s in the County Jail.”
Andrea Williams, then, asked, “Why’s he in jail? He gotta stay in there?”
The deputy, then, said, “We’ll explain it to you, later on.”
Cuyahoga County prosecutors filed weapons charges for the guns against both Lanell and Andrea Williams.
Then, the I TEAM found, Cleveland Heights police filed a criminal complaint against Andrea Williams. Records show she is suspected of shooting up a house. The home of an ex-boyfriend.
Back at the Justice Center, Lanell Williams also told investigators that he and his mother had just been to a hospital with the gun. Yet, he couldn’t explain which hospital.
“You guys were at a hospital, too? You had both of these weapons inside a hospital?” a deputy asked.
Lanell Williams responded to that with, “Yes, they took me to the back room.”
Now, he and his mother have to explain having guns in the justice center.
The video backs up what deputies said, initially. They reported the incident didn’t appear to be tied to any planned attack inside the justice center.
It ups the potential charges and you're not supposed to turn in a loaded firearm. If something were to happen, they going to throw the book at him.Cops being surprised a weapon is loaded with 1 in the chamber wtf did they expect it to be racked cleared with a safety chain on it?
What did he have firearms for if he wasn’t going to protect himself with them?