CHICAGO — A woman has been given a nine-year sentence for intentionally shooting a 12-year-old girl who got into an argument with her niece.
Telisa Pratt, 30, received the sentence from Judge Carole Howard after pleading guilty to aggravated battery by discharging a firearm. She’ll be eligible for release after serving 85% of her time, in July 2030.
“You, as an adult, pulled a gun and fired it at a 12-year-old,” a bewildered Judge Charles Beach remarked upon hearing the allegations during an initial court hearing two years ago.
The shooting, which was captured by several surveillance cameras outside a service station in the 8900 block of S. South Chicago Avenue, left the girl in critical condition with a gunshot wound to her neck, prosecutors said.
According to the allegations, the victim and Pratt’s niece were schoolmates who had been involved in an argument. At around 9:30 a.m. on November 13, 2022, the victim was walking into the gas station with her sister’s boyfriend when Pratt drove into the lot with her niece in the front passenger seat.
Pratt and her niece yelled the victim’s name, and the girl approached the passenger side of Pratt’s car with her sister’s boyfriend.
“I bet you won’t swing,” Pratt allegedly challenged the girl, who then struck Pratt’s niece with her hand.
Pratt then pulled a gun from between the seats, shot the girl in the neck, and drove away, prosecutors alleged. The gas station cameras allegedly recorded the incident from several angles, including one that clearly showed Pratt pointing and firing the gun.
Chicago police served a search warrant on Pratt’s car and allegedly found one shell casing under its driver’s seat.
Pratt was pregnant with her fourth child at the time of her arrest. Due to her pregnancy, she was put on electronic monitoring to await trial. She earned over 600 days of credit toward her prison sentence by wearing the ankle monitor.
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