I know you’re probably expecting my thoughts on the most recent school shooting at Michigan State University. Don’t worry, I’ll be getting to that. But first there’s a major update on a school shooting that happened at the end of last year.
If you’ll recall, on December 16th of last year, four teenagers were shot just outside of Benito Juarez High School in Chicago. Both 15-year-old Brandon Perez and 14-year-old Nathan Billegas were shot in the head and died. The gunman fled the scene and remained at large until last week.
16-year-old Christian Acevedo has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder. He’s also been charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm on school grounds, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, four counts of unlawful use of a weapon, and criminal trespassing. He has been charged as an adult and is currently being held without bond. Acevedo did attend Juarez high school at one point, but was expelled for multiple issues.
The reason behind the shooting was as senseless as they come. Acevedo allegedly asked Brandon Perez if he was in a certain gang. Perez asked Acevedo why he wanted to know. Acevedo started to walk away, then turned around and started firing on the group of students.
Police were able to recover eight .357 shell casings.
After police released images of the fleeing gunman, two witnesses ID’d Acevedo as the shooter. So did a Chicago police officer who had previous run-ins with Acevedo.
On the day of Acevedo’s arrest, police were surveilling his home. Acevedo is said to have exited a stolen car while holding a rifle. Police were able to arrest three people who were still inside the car. 14 more shell casings were found inside the car.
After Acevedo surrendered to police, his home was searched. Police are said to have found four guns in his bedroom. For the gun nerds, the guns found were two 9mm Glocks, a 10mm Glock, and a .40-caliber Glock. All the guns had extended magazines, which seems to be all the rage with gang members. Three of the guns had been modified to make them fully automatic.
If you’re wondering where a 16-year-old got such an arsenal, I’m pretty sure these guns were stolen. Remember, every gun used by a bad guy once belonged to ‘responsible gun owners™’. As far as the extended magazines and the doohickey that converts semiautomatic pistols into fully automatic ones, they were legal in the state of Illinois until a month after the shooting.
But as always, even with such legislation, nothing will be done to actually stop the scourge of gun violence. Too many people make money from the sale of coward sticks and their little accessories for any real progress to be made.
Source: Teenage suspect denied bond in deadly shooting outside Benito Juarez High School
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 