John Jefferson
Inset: Tanyiah Bell (GoFundMe). Background: The apartment where Bell was shot and killed (WCAU/YouTube).
A man in Pennsylvania is accused of shooting his pregnant girlfriend in the head while she was watching TV, allegedly telling EMS workers he was “blacked out” and “in there” — another way to say he was high — after smoking, cops say.
“I was fried, man,” Kaiheem Jerelle Williams allegedly told first responders after killing his longtime live-in girlfriend, Tanyiah Bell, on Nov. 14 at their Delaware County apartment. “I was outside smoking,” Williams said, according to his criminal complaint. “I was in there.”
Using a .45-caliber handgun, the 19-year-old is accused of shooting Bell in the head at their home in Lansdowne, according to local police officials. Officers with the Lansdowne Police Department were called to the residence by Williams that evening. He allegedly told them, “my baby’s shot,” upon their arrival.
Bell, also 19, was “clearly pregnant,” according to the complaint, so officers transported her body to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in an attempt to save the unborn child. A Lansdowne Police press release lists her as being eight months pregnant, with cops saying the child was unlikely to survive without the use of life support machines after undergoing “emergency surgery,” the complaint says.
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“The child was born alive at the time of the emergency surgery and is currently on life support with minimal neurological brain activity,” police reported. “The condition is irreversible. The child is not expected to survive without the life support machines.”
During interviews with detectives, Williams said he was alone with Bell at their apartment when he allegedly killed her.
“He returned from work, spent approximately an hour in the apartment eating and ‘smoking’ with Bell, and then left to go to the store,” the complaint says. “He returned home and Bell was ‘fine’ watching TV In the bedroom. He turned around and ‘blacked out.’ His next memory was calling 911 from Bell’s phone because she was shot.”
Williams was arrested on Nov. 15 and charged with first-degree murder. Doorbell video obtained from the scene shows him allegedly leaving his apartment roughly 15 minutes before he reported the shooting. He was also caught with a .45-caliber bullet in his pocket, the complaint says.
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In a press release, Lansdowne police officials called Bell’s death “heartbreaking and disturbing.” Chief Ken Rutherford said, “The arrest of Kaiheem Williams is a testament to the relentless determination of our officers and the CID Detectives. Their hard work has brought us one step closer to justice for the victim and her family.”
Relatives have started a GoFundMe for funeral expenses.
“Tanyiah was brutally murdered just two days after celebrating her 19th birthday,” the GoFundMe states. “This loss is indescribable.”
Williams is due in court on Nov. 25 for his preliminary hearing.
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