Prosecutors yesterday charged three adults with illegally carrying guns in the Loop during a “large group” incident on Sunday night and early Monday that CPD Supt. David Brown said resulted in at least 60 arrests. A fourth adult was charged with having a gun near Buckingham Fountain, too.
But one of the aldermen who represents the downtown area suggested that police found even more guns being carried by juveniles — and their court appearances are not open to the public.
“A disturbingly high number of those arrests involved a teenager with a gun,” Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) told CBS2 on Monday. “We had guns in backpacks. Guns in pockets. A large number of firearms present.”
“We are really lucky no one was murdered in the Loop,” Hopkins said in the report.
Of the four adults hit with felony gun counts during Monday’s city bond court session, the most serious charges were levied against 22-year-old Stevie Glass. Prosecutors said an undercover CPD officer in the Loop for a “mass civilian presence” saw Glass walking with a gun in a bag on the 100 block of North Wabash around 9:25 p.m. Sunday.
Uniformed officers stopped Glass nearby and found a loaded 9-millimeter “ghost gun” and an extended ammunition magazine in his bag, Assistant State’s Attorney John Sviokla said. So-called “ghost guns,” are untraceable and unregistered weapons that people build using kits. Some of the weapons are then sold on the black market.
A man with Glass, 18-year-old Shannon Stephens, was carrying a loaded handgun in a backpack that he was wearing on the front of his body, Sviokla said. Stephens, who has no other adult arrests according to Sviokla, is charged with felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Glass, who has past convictions for burglary and aggravated battery, completed parole on a robbery charge in April, according to Sviokla. Prosecutors charged him with Class X felony armed habitual criminal.
Judge David Navarro set bail for Glass at $50,000 and Stephens at $5,000.
Prosecutors also charged 21-year-old Deronn Hatchett of Calumet City with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possessing a firearm with a defaced serial number.
Police saw Hatchett walking down the 300 block of South Wabash with a gun in his waistband around 2:15 a.m. Monday, Sviokla said. Bail for Hatchett, who also has no adult background, was set at $5,000.
In the Buckingham Fountain incident, a driver flagged down police around 8:28 p.m. Sunday to report that a man implied he had a gun during an altercation over a parking space, Sviokla said. Police located a man who matched the suspect’s description, 35-year-old Brian Parker of Champaign, and found a loaded handgun in his back pocket, according to Sviokla.
Navarro set Parker’s bail at $3,000.
Chicago police, who released virtually no information about what happened in the Loop this weekend, may offer more details on Tuesday.
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