A Lake Villa man has been charged with shooting a 19-year-old employee in the face at a Dollar General store in Waukegan in February. A 15-year-old boy was initially wrongfully charged in the case.
Kaleb S. Brown, 20, of Lake Villa, was charged with one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
The incident happened around 7:15 p.m. on February 4 at the Dollar General, 2613 Grand Avenue in Waukegan, and prompted the response of the Waukegan Police Department and Waukegan Fire Department.
The victim’s father told Lake and McHenry County Scanner at the time that his son was working as an employee at the store when the shooting happened.
He said that his 19-year-old son noticed a person shoplifting in the store and asked the person to leave.
“Things escalated. The guy went outside and pulled a gun and shot,” said the victim’s father, who did not want to be publicly identified.
The 19-year-old victim, who is a Waukegan resident, was shot in the face near his eye while trying to shut the store’s front door.
Paramedics transported the man to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville for treatment of severe facial injuries. He was later transferred to another hospital for surgery.
The 19-year-old was released from the hospital and underwent several surgeries.
Shortly after the shooting in February, police arrested 15-year-old Martell Williams and prosecutors charged him with attempted murder and aggravated battery.
Prosecutors later dropped the charges against Williams and police eliminated him as the suspect after verifying his whereabouts on the night of the shooting.
Williams, who was a Waukegan High School freshman and basketball player at the time, was attending an away game at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire.
Investigators later identified Brown as the gunman and charges were filed against him on June 30, court records show.
Brown was arrested on the charges and transported to the Lake County Jail on July 14.
He remains held on a $500,000 bond. Brown also had an additional active warrant for possessing a loaded gun in Zion in 2021, court records show.
Brown is scheduled to appear in court again on August 16.