Chicago — Jeffery Brown, a 17-year-old Chicago high school student, had two pending felony gun cases in juvenile court when he and three other gunmen opened fire on a man outside a West Side store last summer, prosecutors said Thursday. The alleged victim, 34, can no longer walk.
On Christmas Day, police arrested Brown for domestic battery. When they did, prosecutor Anne McCord said, Brown was in possession of a gun that he used to shoot the victim months earlier.
Brown is the 55th person accused of killing or shooting—or trying to kill or shoot—someone in Chicago last year while having a felony case pending. The alleged crimes involved at least 94 victims, 25 of whom died.
On August 30, around 6:45 p.m., the victim was sitting outside a store in the 4000 block of West Madison when a silver Jeep Cherokee pulled up next to him, and four men dressed in black exited with guns.
McCord said all four men began shooting, including the front seat passenger, who fired a gun equipped with a “banana clip,” the slang term for a curved ammunition magazine commonly seen on AK-47s. The gunman with that weapon continued shooting at the victim even after the other three stopped.
About 20 minutes later, a 911 caller reported that they saw five men run from a Jeep Cherokee with guns after they wiped the vehicle down to remove fingerprints.
Chicago police seized the SUV and found a print on the back driver’s side door that matched Brown’s, McCord said.
Investigators found a picture on Brown’s Facebook account that showed him posing with a Draco firearm attached to a “banana clip,” McCord said. And during his arrest on Christmas Day, Brown allegedly possessed the gun, which ballistics tests linked to shell casings found at the shooting scene.
Police arrested Brown in Woodridge on Wednesday.
McCord stated that he has three felony gun cases pending in juvenile court, one from Christmas Day, one from January 2022, and one from September 2020.
His defense attorney argued that Brown’s fingerprint was allegedly found on a different car door than the one used by the “banana clip” shooter. The lawyer also countered that prosecutors provided no evidence that the only bullet to hit the victim came from the gun Brown allegedly possessed.
But the defense arguments did not sway Judge William Fahy. He granted the prosecution’s request to hold Brown without bail on a charge of aggravated battery by discharging a firearm.
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.
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