Prosecutors said Thursday that an 18-year-old Chicago man who has two pending juvenile cases shot a motorcyclist at least 16 times on Memorial Day, causing the victim to crash into a porch and die.
Damarion Garron is the 32nd person accused of killing or shooting—or attempting to kill or shoot—someone in Chicago while awaiting trial for a felony this year. The alleged crimes involved at least 66 victims, 14 of whom died.
Damarion Garron | CPD
Surveillance video showed a gray BMW trailing the 26-year-old victim as he drove a 3-wheeled Slingshot motorcycle near the 8600 block of South Aberdeen around 5 p.m. on May 30.
A gunman eventually emerged from the BMW with a t-shirt wrapped around his face and began shooting at the victim, Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Deboni said. One video showed the killer “continues firing shot after shot” while resting his free hand on the lid of a trash can to steady himself, Deboni continued. The killer then escaped in the BMW.
Investigators matched a fingerprint from the trash can lid to Garron and brought him in for questioning on July 5, Deboni said. Before asking for a lawyer, Garron allegedly claimed that he was in Indiana at the time of the murder and said he didn’t go to the area where the shooting occurred.
He was set free while police secured a search warrant for his phone records, which revealed that the device arrived in the area of the murder about 24 minutes before the shooting and left eight minutes after, Deboni said. The phone, Deboni said, was then tracked back to Indiana.
Garron is a high school senior, private defense lawyer Michael Clancy said.
In addition to having juvenile cases pending for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and criminal trespass to a vehicle, Garron was adjudicated delinquent three times as a juvenile, according to Deboni: for possessing a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated reckless driving in 2019; for possession of cannabis and retail theft in 2020; and for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon last year. At the time of the alleged murder, Garron was on “intensive probation” for the 2021 gun case.
About a month after police questioned Garron about the murder in July, he was arrested again for possessing a Jeep that was stolen in Lincoln Square, according to court records.
During a bail hearing for that case on August 9, prosecutors failed to tell Judge Susana Ortiz about Garron’s pending juvenile cases and failed to mention his 2021 gun case and the 2019 stolen motor vehicle and fleeing case, according to court records. She released him on his own recognizance.
On Thursday, Judge Kelly McCarthy ordered Garron held without bail on a charge of first-degree murder.
The “not horrible” series
This report continues our coverage of individuals accused of killing, shooting, or trying to kill or shoot others while on bond for a pending felony case. CWBChicago began our series of reports in November 2019 after Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans publicly stated, “we haven’t had any horrible incidents occur” under the court’s bond reform initiative.
The actual number of murders and shootings committed by people on felony bail is undoubtedly much higher than the numbers seen here. Since 2017, CPD has brought charges in less than 5% of non-fatal shootings and 33% of murders, according to the city’s data.
