CHICAGO — A twice-convicted gun offender has been sentenced to ten years for shooting a man in October 2021 while on bail for yet another gun case, plus two years for escaping from electronic monitoring.
Shaquille Sankey pleaded guilty to aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, aggravated battery of a pregnant person, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and escaping from electronic monitoring before Judge Mary Brosnahan.
Prosecutors said Sankey, 29, went to his girlfriend’s apartment to confront her about a man she had been talking to. Sankey allegedly choked and battered the woman in front of her roommate and the roommate’s male friend while an armed man who came with Sankey stood by the front door.
With a gun dangling from his neck by a shoestring, Sankey allegedly pointed the weapon at the roommate and her friend and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed. He shot the male friend in his right buttock as the man walked out of the apartment, prosecutors alleged.
Chicago police arrested Sankey a short time later during a traffic stop. They said he was sitting in the car’s passenger seat with a gun tied around his neck by a shoestring.
“He’s got a pending armed habitual criminal case and a pending escape case. Not only that, he’s convicted of two other gun cases before,” Judge John Lyke remarked during Sankey’s bail hearing. “And he’s walking around allegedly with a gun tied around his neck by a shoestring.”
During the hearing, prosecutors said Sankey paid a $500 bail deposit to be released on electronic monitoring in the armed habitual criminal case—and then another $100 to get out after he allegedly escaped from electronic monitoring, too.
Prosecutors dropped six counts of attempted murder in their plea deal with Sankey, allowing him to plead guilty to aggravated battery instead. The armed habitual criminal charge was reduced to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Judge Brosnahan sentenced him to ten years for each aggravated battery case, eight years for the firearm charge, and two years for escaping electronic monitoring. The aggravated battery sentences will be served concurrently. His parole date is set for June 23, 2028.
Sankey was the 47th person accused of shooting, killing, or trying to shoot or kill someone while on bail for a felony in 2021. Since then, 28 more people have been similarly accused.