Man charged in Chicago road-rage shooting that wounded child
A man has been arrested in connection with the road-rage shooting of a 22-month-old boy in Chicago, police announced Thursday.
The boy, Kayden Swann, suffered a gunshot wound to his the head in the April 6 shooting on Lake Shore Drive.
Police arrested Deandre Binion, 25, Tuesday on three counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated battery and discharge of a firearm. Police said he fired a handgun multiple times into the car Kayden was in.
Court documents say the driver of the car Kayden was riding in was almost hit by a sport-utility vehicle, NBC Chicago has reported.
The car it tried to get away, but the SUV followed close behind and its driver opened fire.
Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said in a news conference Thursday that Binion got out of his vehicle and continued to shoot at the car.
"The detectives put the same effort into every case, but when you are dealing with something like this with a child — obviously everybody wants to bring the person to justice," Deenihan said.
Kayden is in a hospital in serious condition, which is an improvement, Deenihan said.
A hospital official said this week that the boy was breathing on his own and had been moved out of the pediatric intensive care unit, and that the degree of recovery has been remarkable.
"He has a pretty good prognosis," said Dr. Marcelo Malakooti, associate chief medical officer of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, on Monday. "He has a good road ahead."
It was not immediately clear if Binion had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Deenihan said the investigation involved tracking the vehicle that Binion was in, but the child's grandmother who was in the car gave a good description of the shooter and she ended up picking him out of a photo array. Deenihan said the grandmother's cooperation was vital.
"Without her cooperation, we're not getting here," he said.
The handgun believed used in the shooting was recovered, as well as other weapons that are part of a separate investigation, Deenihan said.
The grandmother's boyfriend who was driving the car that Kayden was in, Jushawn Brown, was arrested and charged with illegal gun possession, but Deenihan said the gun was not fired.
Court documents say that after Brown yelled at the SUV that almost hit them, and the other driver pulled out a handgun, Brown put his own gun in his lap and tried to get away.
