Grief-Stricken Mother Faints After Learning of Daughter’s Tragic Death; Body Dumped in Sleeping Bag

Yazmeen Williams was found dead in a sleeping bag.

The distraught mother of Yazmeen Williams, a 31-year-old woman found fatally shot and wrapped in a sleeping bag on a Kips Bay sidewalk, said Monday she fainted upon hearing the devastating news.

Yazmeen's body was discovered inside a sleeping bag among black trash bags on the sidewalk outside 207 East 27th St. around 5 p.m. Friday, police reported. Authorities confirmed Monday that she had been shot in the head, and her death was ruled a homicide.

“[Officers] said, ‘Are you Yazmeen Williams’ mother?’” Nicole Williams recounted tearfully at her apartment. “I said, ‘Yes, I’m Nicole Williams. I’m her mother.’ And they said, ‘Your daughter has been shot.’ I asked if she was going to be all right, and they said no, she had died. I fainted, and the officer had to pick me up off the floor.”

“She’s my baby!” Nicole Williams cried. “We have to get justice for her! She didn’t deserve this!”

The bag where the victim's body was found.

Law enforcement sources said a man was seen transporting the makeshift body bag on an electric wheelchair before it was found. The body had been left on Third Avenue near East 27th Street, where workers at a nearby saloon initially moved the bag, thinking it was part of their trash pile.

Police could not confirm when the fatal shooting occurred. No arrests have been made, and no suspect information was immediately available. Nicole Williams suspects one of her daughter’s friends, who uses a wheelchair.

“That’s her friend! The man in the wheelchair is her friend!” she exclaimed. “He knows her from the neighborhood! Oh my God!”

Officials pictured near the area where the body was found.

Yazmeen, who studied criminal justice at Buffalo State University, had recently started working with the city’s homeless population in a role with NYCHA. She has a twin brother, and her father, who lives in Atlanta, was flying to New York on Monday.

A small memorial, featuring Yazmeen’s photo surrounded by flowers and candles, appeared Monday morning on the sidewalk where her body was found. A local homeless man, who knew the victim, set up the memorial to honor her, according to a neighbor.