CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been sentenced to seven years for playing a role in the mass shooting that left two people dead and seven injured near the Chicago-State Red Line station last year.
On Tuesday, his 22nd birthday, Kameron Abram pleaded guilty to possessing a machine gun inside a vehicle before Judge Adrienne Davis.
Abram was never accused of firing a weapon during the shooting, which occurred just after 10 p.m. on May 19, 2022, outside the northeast entrance to the busy CTA station.
Instead, prosecutors said CTA surveillance video showed the gunman, Jaylun Sanders, handing the murder weapon to Abram as they fled into the station with a group of people. The two men swapped sweatshirts, but Sanders eventually returned to his original hoodie because Abram’s was too small, prosecutors alleged.
A CPD canine later found the gun in the train tunnel.
Sanders, who was on bail for a felony gun case at the time, continues to fight 42 felony charges, including multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. He is due in court again on October 24.
The shooting allegations
About 45 minutes before the shooting, police responded to another incident in the immediate area after a group that Sanders was with clashed with another group of people, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said last year.
A shot was fired during that confrontation, and police chased a man they saw running from the scene with a gun in his hand, but he got away.
Sanders later told police that the incident was the reason he “had a problem with” the mass shooting victims, Murphy said.
About 20 minutes after that initial incident, video cameras recorded Sanders raising part of his hoodie to cover his lower face and taking a gun from another man, Murphy said. Sanders put the gun in his waistband and remained in the area for another 20 minutes, according to Murphy.
At the time of the shooting, surveillance video showed Sanders walking west from the McDonald’s at 10 East Chicago with the rival group walking several feet behind him, Murphy said. No one in the second group had a gun, reached for a weapon, or even had their hands in their pockets, according to prosecutors.
Standing at the top of the CTA station’s northeast entrance, Sanders pulled the gun from his waist and fired short bursts of automatic gunfire from a specially equipped pistol, Murphy said. Sanders aimed at various people and placed his spare hand over the top of his firing arm to steady it from the powerful recoil of the automatic weapon, according to Murphy.
Police later found 21 shell casings at the scene. Two men, 31-year-old Anthony Allen and Antonio Wade, 30, were killed. Seven others were injured.
Officials said that Sanders’ group fled into the train station, jumped onto the Red Line tracks, and crossed to the other platform. But his girlfriend fell onto the electrified third rail and remained in contact with the rail until someone pulled her off, according to Murphy. Officials said she suffered major burns but survived.
Police, guided by CPD surveillance camera operators, arrested Sanders in the tunnel, and Abram was detained on the platform. A CPD canine found the gun Sanders used in the train tunnel, Murphy said.
Sanders admitted to firing the gun but claimed the other group shot first, Murphy continued. When confronted with video evidence that showed the victims did not have guns, Sanders allegedly said they were “reaching” for weapons and he had to do it.
Murphy said Sanders told investigators he got the gun in Indiana and said the after-market switch that allowed it to generate automatic gunfire is sold on the street for $20 or $25.
Abram’s sentence will be partially offset by good behavior credits, 503 days spent in custody before pleading, 383 “behavior modification” credit days, and 90 credit days for achieving his high school diploma, according to court records.
