America Williams is a fictional character widely associated with Emoni Rivers-Boyd, a 15-year-old girl from Wilmington, Delaware. Emoni was shot and killed on 15 February 2020 at Newport Terrace Apartments in New Castle County. Her death sparked a viral myth linking her to Shanasia Maddox, a separate, living person from New York. The two women have no confirmed connection. America Williams is not a real person.
Source: UGC
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Key takeaways
- America Williams is a fictional name attached to Emoni Rivers-Boyd, the late teenager from Wilmington, Delaware.
- Emoni was fatally shot on 15 February 2020 inside an apartment in Newport, New Castle County, Delaware.
- Online trolls attached Emoni's photo to Shanasia Maddox's viral slapping video, but they are two different people.
- The viral video showed Maddox slapping an elderly woman.
- Other trolls wrongly claimed Maddox was the one fatally shot in February 2020.
Profile summary
Full name | Emoni Rivers-Boyd |
Known as | America Williams |
Date of birth | May 2004 |
Age at death | 15 |
Hometown | Wilmington, Delaware, USA |
Nationality | American |
Date of death | 15 February 2020 |
Cause of death | Gunshot wound |
Case status | Open, no confirmed arrests |
Who was America Williams?
America Williams is or was not a real person. The fictional name was associated with Emoni Rivers-Boyd, a teenager from Wilmington, Delaware. She was 15 years old at the time of her death in February 2020.
Little verified detail has been published about her early life, family, or schooling. Most confirmed reports come from the Delaware State Police investigation opened in February 2020.
According to her obituary, Emoni was born on May 9, 2004, in Wilmington, Delaware. She attended Thomas McKean High School and loved playing video games, doing arts and crafts, singing, and being on Instagram.
Emoni's father is the late Bryan Rivers, and her mother is Shalanda Boyd. She also had siblings: Shyanne Rivers-Boyd, Ehran Boyd-Brown, Shanai Rivers-Walker, Tamia Rivers, and Bryniah.
How she is remembered
Emoni Rivers-Boyd is listed on the Gun Violence Memorial, a database of gun violence victims in the United States.
Her case attracted wide online attention after viral social media posts incorrectly linked her death to a separate slapping video. The confusion spread rapidly but has been fact-checked and corrected.
Source: Original
What happened to America Williams?
On the night of Saturday, 15 February 2020, Delaware State Police received a call shortly before 10 p.m. Officers responded to Newport Terrace Apartments on Bennett Court, Newport, New Castle County, Delaware. They found Emoni Rivers-Boyd shot dead inside the apartment.
The Delaware State Police, led by Detective M. Csapo, took the case. Delaware State Police and Newport Police jointly investigated, as reported by NBC Philadelphia.
Investigation status and arrests
According to reports in April 2020, State police charged Angelise Merced, a 15-year-old Delaware girl, for the killing, including possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a person prohibited.
Angelise's bond was set at $130,000 cash. There is no recent update on the case.
Who is Shanasia Maddox?
Shanasia appeared in a viral video showing a young woman slapping another lady. The video spread widely across social media platforms.
Around the same time, news of Emoni's death also circulated online. Rumours incorrectly merged the two stories. Many posts claimed the girl in the slapping video had been shot dead as revenge.
Source: Youtube
Shanasia Maddox is alive
That claim is false. Shanasia Maddox is alive, according to a response by Grok on X:
The girl in the video is Shanasia Maddox, who is alive. It's often confused with the 2020 shooting death of 15-year-old Emoni Rivers-Boyd (aka America Williams), unrelated to the video.
As ThrillNG confirmed on X:
"America Williams was never in any viral video. The girl in the video is Shanasia Maddox (alive & well in NY)."
America Williams and Shanasia Maddox: what is the connection?
There is no verified connection between the two women beyond the viral myth. Social media posts claimed that the girl who slapped a woman in the video was later shot as revenge. This story has spread widely but has no police confirmation and no credible news source to support it.
The woman in the slapping video is Shanasia Maddox. The person who died in the Delaware shooting is Emoni Rivers-Boyd. They are two different people.
Was America Williams on The First 48?
The First 48 is an A&E documentary series following police detectives during the critical first 48 hours of a murder investigation.
There is no verified information confirming that Emoni Rivers-Boyd's case was featured on the show. Some search results describe a separate individual named America Williams as a detective on The First 48, but those pages come from unverified, low-quality sources and contradict each other.
FAQ
- Who is America Williams? It is a fictional character associated with Emoni Rivers-Boyd, a 15-year-old from Wilmington, Delaware, fatally shot on 15 February 2020 in Newport, New Castle County.
- What happened to America Williams? Emoni was found shot dead inside an apartment at Newport Terrace Apartments on Bennett Court, Newport, Delaware.
- Are America Williams and Shanasia Maddox the same person? No. They are two separate individuals. The viral story linking them has been debunked by multiple fact-checkers and social media corrections.
- Was America Williams shot because of a slapping video? There is no police confirmation or credible news report to support this claim. It is an unverified social media rumour with no official backing.
- Has anyone been arrested for America Williams's shooting? Yes, the then 15-year-old Angelise Merced was arraigned and charged in connection with the death of Emoni Rivers-Boyd (widely reported as America Williams by online trolls). She was initially held at the New Castle County Detention Center on a $130,000 cash bond.
- How can I report information about this case? Contact Delaware State Police at 302-741-2729 or Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333.
America Williams is not a real person, but a name attached to the late teenager, Emoni Rivers-Boyd, who was fatally shot on 15 February 2020 in Newport, New Castle County. People also mistook Emoni for a young lady called Shanasia Maddox, who was seen slapping an older woman in a viral video. Shanasia is still alive, living a private life in the United States.
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