Months after FBI agents in Philly shot her son, a mother searches for answers

It’s been nearly six months since Stacey Weeks’ workday at the ICU at Penn Medicine was interrupted by a call informing her that her 22-year-old son had been shot.

Six months and a couple hours since she learned FBI agents trying to arrest him struck him down.

And six months and two days since Weeks, sitting by his bedside at Temple University Hospital, watched her son — Tahiem Weeks-Cook — take his final breaths.

But despite all the time that’s passed since, Weeks still has no idea what prompted her son’s death. No one from the FBI has reached out to her, she said. Her repeated requests for information have seemingly fallen on deaf ears.

“He was on a ventilator. I couldn’t ask him what happened,” she said, choking back tears. “I have no answers. All I want to know is, how did it lead to this?”

Weeks, 41, of Upper Darby, described that frustration during a news conference Tuesday as her attorney announced her family had taken preliminary steps to sue the FBI and filed a records request for any documents that could shed light on the circumstances behind her son’s death.

Since the Aug. 4 incident, authorities have released scant details, except to say that agents struck Weeks-Cook four times while attempting to arrest him on the 1700 block of Venango Street in the Nicetown-Tioga section of Philadelphia.

They have not explained why agents were seeking to arrest him or offered any narrative of the events that led up to his death, citing FBI protocols while the shooting remains under investigation.

Sources familiar with the probe say that the warrant that brought agents to Weeks-Cook’s door was tied to a string of armed robberies across the region. Upper Southampton Township police filed state felony charges against him the same day he was shot — including counts of robbery, conspiracy, and making terroristic threats — for a July 30 stickup at a 7-Eleven along State Road.

But his mother said Tuesday that information has never officially been conveyed to her. Had she known her son was wanted, she said, would have insisted he turn himself in.

“If you have an arrest warrant, it should not be a death warrant,” she said. “And that’s what this was for my son.”

Surveillance videos — recovered from businesses nearby the shooting by Weeks’ attorney Paul J. Hetznecker — have shed some light on Weeks-Cook’s last moments.

In one, Weeks-Cook can be seen leaving his apartment on the 1600 block of Venango as four armed agents in military-style camouflage tactical gear leap out of the back of an unmarked white van. He spots them, and takes off running toward 17th Street as they pursue.

Another shows Weeks-Cook, moments later, running up to another unmarked van, occupied by agents, and attempting to either take cover behind it or get inside before he suddenly falls to the ground.

A third video shows agents surrounding Weeks-Cook’s fallen body in what appears to be an attempt to render aid.

Weeks-Cook does not appear to be armed in any of the footage. None of the videos depict the shooting itself.

Hetznecker said Tuesday that the FBI did not recover any weapons either from the Weeks-Cook’s apartment or the scene of the shooting, raising questions as to why agents would have used deadly force.

“My greatest concern is that Tahiem Weeks-Cook is not dehumanized as a result of this process, and that’s easy to do because of the charges,” he said. “But everyone is entitled to due process under the law — including the FBI agent involved. … We just want answers. We want accountability. We want transparency.”

Though Weeks-Cook’s family on Tuesday filed what is known as a “notice of claim” with the FBI — a precursor to suing the bureau — such notices are not public filings, and Hetznecker declined to discuss any compensation they might eventually pursue in court.

The family, he said, was more concerned with learning what happened than any potential financial payout that could result from a lawsuit.

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment Tuesday on either the family’s filing or the investigation into Weeks-Cook’s fatal shooting, saying the bureau’s internal probe of the incident remains ongoing.

Though that answer disappointed Weeks, it’s the one she’s come to expect in the six months since her son’s death.

“I just want some answers,” she said. “It’s not going to bring him back, but just let me know what happened.”