Chicago — Prosecutors say a seven-time felon with a pending Class X armed habitual criminal case had another gun in the house where he was on electronic monitoring, and his 3-year-old son shot himself with it on Thursday evening.
Milton Scott, 34, was ordered held without bail Saturday by Judge Barbara Dawkins on a new count of Class X armed habitual criminal, felony reckless conduct, and other misdemeanor charges.
Prosecutor Gail Bembnister said Scott was keeping the gun for a friend, and his son picked it up and shot himself in the leg with it around 9:10 p.m. Bemnister’s allegations differed from a Chicago Police Department press release that said Scott shot the child inside their home in the 100 block of North Latrobe.
Scott initially told police that the boy was shot in a drive-by, but he later admitted that the child shot himself with a firearm that Scott was holding onto for a buddy, according to Bembnister.
After the shooting, Scott threw the gun out of the house and asked a friend to come pick it up, she said. Police never found the weapon or a shell casing.
Scott was participating in an electronic monitoring program administered by the office of Chief Judge Timothy Evans to enforce court-ordered curfews, according to his defense attorney, Courtney Smallwood. She said he is the father of three.
His felony convictions include narcotics charges in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2016, and 2018, escape in 2012, and attempted unlawful use of a weapon by a felon in 2016, said Bembnister.
Prosecutors have charged two other men as a result of the shooting investigation. One is accused of helping to cover up the shooting, and the other is charged with illegal firearm possession after police allegedly found a firearm in his car while executing a search warrant.
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