Stephon Watts

Stephon Watts, 15, who was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and ADHD, was shot and killed in his own basement by Calumet City, Illinois police officers on February 1, 2012, after his father called the department's non-emergency line for help during an argument over school — following prior advice from social workers to call police when Stephon became agitated. Police had responded to the home at least ten times over the previous two years, and the address was flagged as belonging to a person with a disability. Officers said Stephon lunged at them with a steak knife; his father maintained it was only a butter knife. Two officers fired, killing him within roughly two minutes of entering the home. Cook County's State's Attorney cleared both officers of any misconduct that April, and a decade-long civil suit ended in 2022 when an Illinois appellate court ruled the officers were legally immune from liability. No officer was ever criminally charged, disciplined, or fired.

Calumet City, IL · Cook County

• 2012: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The non-emergency call, the responding officers' prior familiarity with Stephon's autism diagnosis, and the shooting roughly two minutes after officers entered the home, per Cook County State's Attorney's Office records and the family's civil suit filings.
• Police had responded to the Watts home at least ten times in the two years before the shooting, and the address carried a code indicating a resident with a disability lived there.
• Officers said Stephon lunged at them twice with a knife, cutting one officer's forearm before a second officer fired; anonymous police sources described the weapon as a nine-inch steak knife, while Stephon's father maintained throughout that it was only a butter knife.
• The Cook County State's Attorney's Office cleared both officers of any criminal conduct in April 2012.
• Stephon's mother, Danelene Powell-Watts, filed a civil negligence suit against the city and the two officers; in 2022, the Illinois Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that the officers were statutorily immune from liability, finding their conduct did not rise to “willful and wanton” behavior.
• No officer involved was ever criminally charged, internally disciplined, or fired as a result of the shooting.

• Whether the knife Stephon held was in fact the nine-inch steak knife anonymous police sources described or the butter knife his father maintained was the only weapon in the house has never been independently and publicly resolved.
• Given ten prior police contacts at the home, including at least one where officers used a Taser to de-escalate without lethal force, why officers escalated to gunfire within roughly two minutes on this occasion has not been fully explained.
• What specific crisis-intervention or disability-awareness training, if any, the responding officers had received prior to this documented, coded address has not been made public.

• NWI Times — “Court rules in favor of Cal City cops in fatal shooting of autistic teen”
• Chicago Reader — “Family of autistic teen killed by Calumet City cops loses civil suit appeal”
• HuffPost Chicago — “Stephon Watts Lawsuit: Mother Of Autistic Teen Fatally Shot By Calumet City Cops Sues”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs