Chicago — Prosecutors say a man on electronic monitoring for a Class X felony gun case had a pistol capable of firing automatic gunfire in his jacket pocket during a Chicago police traffic stop on Monday.
Judge David Navarro held 23-year-old Deray Calcote without bail during a court hearing Tuesday afternoon.
Calcote, who was adjudicated delinquent as a juvenile for gun cases in 2015 and 2017, was also convicted of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in 2019. In that case, Chicago cops who heard a gunshot pulled over the vehicle he was in and found the front seat passenger had been shot. Prosecutors said that officers saw Calcote stash a gun with an extended ammunition magazine on the back floorboard during the incident.
Then, in October 2020, police chased after Calcote when he allegedly ran from a car next door to a home where they were conducting an investigation. Officers said they saw him throw a loaded 9-millimeter handgun with a 27-round drum magazine over a fence during the pursuit.
Prosecutors charged him with Class X armed habitual criminal, and a judge released him on his own recognizance. Calcote failed to appear in court, and the judge ordered him to pay a $3,000 bail deposit in July 2021. When Calcote didn’t show up for court again in November 2021, the judge ordered him to pay another $2,000 to go home on electronic monitoring, prosecutors said.
He was still wearing an ankle monitor around 11:30 a.m. Monday when police pulled him over as he rode in the passenger seat of a woman’s car in the 2700 block of East 79th Street. Police allegedly saw an ammunition magazine sticking out of his pocket when they asked him and the woman to step out of the vehicle because the woman had a suspended driver’s license.
Prosecutors said police recovered a loaded handgun with an automatic-fire switch from Calcote.
He told officers the switch was already attached when he bought the gun, which he said he “needed for safety,” according to prosecutor Sarah Dale-Schmidt.
Calcote’s public defender said he delivers for a catering company, attends Rock of Ages Church, and is the primary caregiver for his grandmother, who has dementia. The lawyer said Calcote’s mother was driving the car when police pulled them over Monday.
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