New Video Shows Final Moments Before Teen Girl’s Death At Atlanta Hotel
Kalecia Williams, a 16-year-old girl, was shot to death and found in the lobby at an Atlanta Hyatt Regency hotel last month. And while her friends and family are still mourning her death, they’re demanding that authorities do more in connection to her killing.
Atlanta police say they’ve arrested a teenaged boy in connection with Williams’ death, but her family says that’s not enough. They’re currently piecing together information themselves that has led them to believe more people were involved and should be held accountable.
On December 26, 2020, Williams was supposed to go to a chaperoned Airbnb holiday party with at least one parent in attendance. However, her family says they later realized their daughter ended up at the Hyatt in a hotel room paid for by that parent, reports FOX 5 Atlanta.
"She was responsible for getting the hotel room for these minors,” said April Smith, Williams’ mother. “Her name was on the hotel room for these minors, so I feel like she should be held accountable for my daughter's death as well.”
Smith says she wasn’t notified of her daughter’s death until eight hours after she was pronounced dead at the hospital.
There is footage of Williams making a Tik Tok post. In it, she appears to be dancing to a challenge when she is suddenly startled by someone coming into the room. Seconds later, the video ends.
"What happened after she made that last Tik Tok video at 12:02 a.m. and she was dead at 12:23 a.m.? I need answers," Smith said.
Atlanta Police say they are still piecing together what happened outside of the arrest they made. The teenage boy is facing a sexual assault charge, felony murder, aggravated assault, reckless conduct, and possession of a pistol by persons under 18 years of age.
Smith says her family has since been contacted by a South Carolina woman who has been able to provide them with additional details about the night of her daughter’s death.
"I just got a chill in my body when she called me and my wife," Ronney Savoy, Smith's husband and Williams’ stepfather told FOX 5.
"They were shouting ‘what hotel? We at what hotel?’ She was panicking," remembers Kanautica Starkie, who told FOX 5 Atlanta that she was a guest at the hotel during the incident. "I seen two guys coming out the elevator with a little girl, holding her. One had one leg, one had the other and they were saying she had been shot.”
Starkie said she held Williams’ hand as they waited for help to arrive. She said she also took a video of EMTs trying to resuscitate the 16-year-old in the lobby, which only made the family even more suspicious.
"The young girl said they moved my daughter's body because of the blood, but when we look at the video from the woman from South Carolina there was no blood, so we want to know the reason why you took her from the floor to the lobby," Savoy said.
On Tuesday (January 26), dozens of friends and family shouted Kalecia’s name from outside the Hyatt Regency where she was last seen alive.
"It was just a lot of foul play and I'm trying to put all the pieces together because I don't feel like the system is doing enough to help me," said Smith.
