Kaiheem Williams was convicted of third-degree murder after a fatal shooting that also injured Bell’s unborn daughter.

LANSDOWNE, Pa. — A Pennsylvania man was sentenced May 21 to 22 to 44 years in prison for fatally shooting his pregnant girlfriend in their Lansdowne apartment while she was watching television in November 2024.

Kaiheem Williams, 20, was convicted in April of third-degree murder, aggravated assault of an unborn child and possessing an instrument of crime in the death of 19-year-old Tanyiah Bell. The sentence closes the main criminal case but leaves Bell’s family caring for her daughter, Miracle Bell, who survived an emergency birth after the shooting and still needs extensive medical care.

The case began on Nov. 14, 2024, inside an apartment in Lansdowne, a borough west of Philadelphia. Police said Williams called 911 after Bell was shot in the head with a .45-caliber handgun. When officers arrived, he brought them inside and told them, “My baby is shot,” according to accounts of the case. Bell was in the bedroom, where authorities said she had been watching TV. First responders found that she was clearly pregnant, and medics moved quickly because doctors still hoped to save the child she was carrying. Williams told emergency workers he had been smoking and had blacked out. “I was fried, man,” he said, according to the criminal complaint. “I was outside smoking.”

Bell was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where doctors tried to save her and then focused on the child. Police later said the baby was born alive during emergency surgery but had minimal neurological brain activity and was not expected to survive without life support. Bell was eight months pregnant, according to police. Her mother later named the child Miracle Bell. Family members have said doctors first gave them little hope, but the baby survived. More than a year later, Miracle still requires machines and near-constant care, but relatives said she has shown signs of movement in her arms, legs and head. Authorities have not said that Bell and Williams were fighting before the shooting, and a precise motive has not been publicly established.

Investigators built the case through Williams’ own statements, physical evidence and video. During interviews, Williams said he had returned from work, spent about an hour inside the apartment eating and smoking with Bell, left for a store, then came back to find Bell watching TV. He told detectives he turned around and blacked out, and that his next memory was calling 911 from Bell’s phone because she had been shot. Doorbell video showed him leaving the apartment about 15 minutes before he reported the shooting, according to the case record. Police also found a .45-caliber bullet in his pocket. Prosecutors argued that the location of the gun and the time that passed before the 911 call undercut his account that the shooting was a simple accident.

The case moved through court first as a murder prosecution with the death of Bell and the grave injury to her unborn child at its center. At a preliminary hearing in February 2025, defense attorney Eugene Gibbons argued there was no sign of a fight, yelling or a domestic disturbance that would show premeditation. Assistant District Attorney Danielle Gallaher argued that if the shooting had been accidental, police would have found the gun near Bell. Williams was held for trial. In April, a Delaware County jury convicted him of third-degree murder rather than first-degree murder, along with aggravated assault of an unborn child and possessing an instrument of crime. Third-degree murder in Pennsylvania does not require proof of a specific intent to kill, but it does require malice.

At trial, Williams testified that he did not mean to shoot Bell. He told jurors he had been trying to put a trigger lock on the gun and believed it was unloaded when he dry-fired it. He said the weapon went off, the room went quiet, and he lowered his arm before seeing a hole in Bell’s head. He said he touched her and she began to bleed. “I think she’s dead,” Williams said he shouted while shaking Bell. He also testified that, during the commotion, he heard a door close and later noticed that the gun was gone. “I didn’t want that to happen,” Williams told the jury. “That’s the last thing I wanted to happen. I don’t understand how I could have let that happen.”

Judge Margaret Amoroso imposed the prison term in Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, where Bell’s relatives were present for the sentencing. The judge addressed Bell’s mother, Tylicia Bell, directly from the bench. “I wish I had the power to bring Tanyiah back, and if I could, Tylicia, I would,” Amoroso said. “I see your pain, I do. I see it, but I can’t imagine it.” The sentence means Williams will serve at least 22 years before he can seek release and could remain in state prison for 44 years. The court’s decision followed months of hearings, family grief and medical uncertainty surrounding Miracle.

Bell’s family has described her as a recent high school graduate who was preparing to become a mother. The shooting left relatives mourning Bell while also caring for the child born after her death. Tylicia Bell has said that caring for Miracle brings pain because the baby reminds her of what happened, but also joy because she sees her daughter in the child. “She would want me to raise her daughter the way I raised her,” Tylicia Bell said. That family role became part of the case’s lasting impact, because the sentence answered the criminal charge but did not end the daily medical and emotional work created by the shooting.

For now, Williams remains sentenced in the Delaware County case, and the main next step is the formal prison and appellate process that can follow a felony conviction. Bell’s family continues to care for Miracle as the case moves out of the trial courtroom and into the long period after sentencing.

Author note: Last updated June 20, 2026.