Clarice Taylor, a 41-year-old mother of seven, was killed outside of her neighbor’s home on February 13. According to ABC 7 News, before being fatally shot in the head, Taylor had called the Hanover Police Department and reported that she was being stalked.
The family of the Illinois woman recalled that she had made multiple calls to the police leading up to the murder about a male stalker and harasser, and “He killed her that next morning[after a call],” Her sister Chianni Hopkins told the outlet. Hopkins continued to explain that she was on the phone with her sister just minutes before the fatal shooting. The family alleged the killer was her husband, a man named William Nicholas Taylor.
She shared, “She said, ‘Why he just rush me?’ And, she said, ‘Oh my God, this is him. Call you back.’ She was gone within that five minutes,”
A witness to the shooting who lives in Taylor’s neighborhood reported hearing the gunfire around 8:30 in the morning. “It was 8:25 this morning, I was just waking up, turning the news on, and all of a sudden, I heard real loud shots, six in a row, bang,” The witness said, “That’s the opening that goes to the park and garage school, so at 8:30 in the morning, that’s when all the little grade school kids are going down that alley, so at least it wasn’t a little kid that got shot.”
Another neighbor who lived near Taylor was so close that their at-home surveillance camera captured the shooting. After sharing the footage with Hanover Police, it was released that the perpetrator drove an old Chevy Malibu with damage to the front end.
A GoFundMe account has been opened to receive donations to help the bereaved family recover and handle the tragic loss. With a goal of $15,000, the description of the fundraiser details that Taylor was brutally shot seven times and that she left behind a large family who is feeling the full effects of her passing.
“This is my mother, that was brutally murdered at the hands of her husband, shot to death with 7 bullet wounds, one in the head. He took her away from her sister, cousins, friends, 7 children and one grandchild. As you can see, it’s a big family and we were taken from our home im only 22 years of age with 5 younger siblings and my oldest one is incarcerated. I have a baby boy at the age of 1. My mother was left in the alley bleeding to death. She made multiple calls to the Hanover police department, reporting him stalking her sitting outside our home constantly banging on the doors and windows. There is a paper trail on William Nicholas Taylor (the man who killed my mom) and the police did nothing and was late to putting an end to his harassment, and now he took her life. The system failed yet another person #JUSTICEFORCLARICE.”
The GoFundMe has since raised $5,000, and the Hanover Police Department is currently investigating the homicide.
