A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for shooting another CPS student near Wendell Phillips Academy High School on May 7 last year.
Dequan Thomas, a 17-year-old student at Innovations High School, traveled to the Phillips campus at 240 East Pershing Road “to get revenge” on a 14-year-old boy at dismissal time, another judge said during an initial court hearing.
The victim was outside the school around 3 p.m. when he spotted Thomas and began running away, prosecutors said. Thomas fired a 9-millimeter handgun at least four times, striking the boy in the right leg as he tried to escape. The shooting was captured on video, and several people identified Thomas in images taken from the footage, officials said. Prosecutors said Thomas admitted to the shooting and had previously been arrested for gun possession.
On Friday, he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery by discharging a firearm in exchange for the 12-year sentence imposed by Judge Thomas Byrne, who ordered him to serve 85% of the term. Thomas was 17 at the time of the shooting, but prosecutors charged him as an adult.
