CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A grandmother is said to have been the "key" to Chicago police being able to track down the alleged shooter who wounded a 1-year-old boy during a road rage incident on Lake Shore Drive earlier this month.
Police said Kayden Swann's grandmother cooperated with police and gave them a good description of the person who fired a number of times into their car. Police said eventually they were able to put someone in a photo array, and she was able to pick him out.
Now, 25-year-old Deandre Binion, of Morgan Park, has been charged in the April 6 shooting on Lake Shore Drive, resulting in a 22-month-old boy being shot in the head and put in a coma.
Deandre Binion faces one count of aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm and three counts of attempted first-degree murder, because there were three people in the car he shot at. He was arrested Tuesday morning, Chicago Police said.
He was expected to appear in bond court Friday.
Kayden Swann was with his grandmother and her boyfriend, Jushawn Brown, 43, when a speeding SUV almost hit them on Lake Shore Drive the morning of April 6, leading to the road rage incident.
According to prosecutors, Brown pulled over toward a wall and started yelling at the driver of SUV, which turned into an argument. The driver of the SUV pulled out a gun and asked Brown “what he wanted to do about it,” while dangling the weapon, prosecutors said. At that point, Brown grabbed his own gun and placed it in his lap.
Brown kept driving, but the SUV followed and the driver fired several shots, hitting the car multiple times, prosecutors said. One bullet came through a window and struck Kayden in the head. Brown then lost control of his car and crashed, prosecutors said. A good Samaritan drove Kayden, his grandmother, and Brown to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Kayden was then transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital.
Related
It was originally reported by police that Brown returned fire at the SUV, but on Thursday, Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said police have determined Brown never fired shots in the road-rage confrontation. He only had a gun on his lap while driving away.
Once at the hospital, police spoke to Brown’s girlfriend, Kayden's grandmother, and she told police that Brown had a firearm.
Related
After a pat down, police recovered the gun, which was loaded. Since Brown does not have a valid FOID card or a conceal carry license he was arrested.
“It doesn’t appear that anybody that was in the car with the child ever discharged a firearm,” Deenihan said. “There’s a little bit of different information out there, on who brandished the firearm first.”
Police said they recovered multiple shell casings from the scene of the road rage incident and they were all from the same weapon, which was not Brown's.
Deenihan said Thursday that the gun used was found and taken into evidence, “along with several other weapons, which is going to be a different investigation, but the weapon that was used to injure the child was recovered.”
Meanwhile, Kayden is said to be getting better. He was moved out of pediatric intensive care at Lurie Children's Hospital and was “breathing on his own with support,” hospital staff said.
“Kayden is moving spontaneously and continues to be very responsive to treatment, is alert and active. We are optimistic for his continued recovery,” a statement from Lurie’s Dr. Marcelo Malakooti said Monday.
Kayden was initially put in a medically induced coma. He has since surprised doctors at Lurie Children’s Hospital with what one physician called a “near-complete” recovery.
Related
