From late 2020 through mid-2021, Chicago police arrested Johnny Allen four times for allegedly selling drugs in the same West Side neighborhood. Prosecutors dropped the charges every time. Almost exactly one month after the state dropped the fourth set of charges, Allen shot and tried to kill a man in the same neighborhood, allegedly for refusing to declare allegiance in an ongoing gang conflict.
This week, Cook County Judge Kenneth Wadas handed Allen a 29-year prison sentence for the shooting after a jury convicted the 26-year-old in June. One is left to wonder if his life and the life of the man he shot might have gone differently had prosecutors not given Allen so many free passes
Allen’s arrest spree began on November 28, 2020, when police took Allen into custody for allegedly distributing oxycodone in the 300 block of South Pulaski Road. Prosecutors dropped the charge during Allen’s bond hearing the following day.
About six weeks later, a man told police that Allen and two others robbed him at gunpoint in the 4000 block of West Wilcox Street, taking $100 cash and a gold watch. Officers said Allen was carrying eleven oxycodone pills, 20 Xanax pills, a baggie of heroin, and ten suspected synthetic heroin pills at the time of his arrest.
The robbery victim declined to pursue charges after police returned his property, according to a Chicago Police Department report, but they still slapped Allen with four felony narcotics counts. Prosecutors dismissed all of those charges less than a month later, court records show.
Police arrested Allen again on June 11, 2021, after allegedly witnessing a hand-to-hand drug transaction in the 4000 block of West Madison Street. Officers reported finding 40 suspected oxycodone pills in his possession. Prosecutors dropped that case during Allen’s bond hearing the next day.
Sixteen days later, Allen was arrested once more after police said he sold heroin twice to undercover officers. Those charges were also dismissed within weeks.
On October 1, 2021, almost exactly a month after prosecutors dropped those charges, a 32-year-old man who had recently been released from prison crossed paths with Allen and another man while walking to get a haircut. Allen allegedly asked which side he was on in an ongoing gang dispute.
The man told Allen he did not want to be involved, explaining that he had just left prison and did not want problems with anyone, prosecutors said.
“If you’re not an ally, then you’re an enemy,” Allen allegedly responded.
The following day, the victim was walking in the 4000 block of West Monroe Street when he saw Allen and another man standing near a vehicle and pointing guns at him, according to prosecutors. Both men opened fire, striking the victim in his torso, leg, and buttocks.
The shooters ran away, but the victim recognized them from the neighborhood and provided their names to police, prosecutors said. Officers later arrested Allen near Madison Street and Pulaski Road, close to where he had been repeatedly arrested for narcotics dealing, on attempted murder charges.
Illinois Department of Corrections records show he arrived at the Stateville Correctional Center reception facility on New Year’s Eve. He must serve 85% of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
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