Prosecutors say a gunman shot his adult brother with a machine gun, nearly shooting his juvenile brother in the face in the process, after the victim came to the aid of their mother in Zion Saturday evening.
Tyson D. Darden-Patrick, 23, of Zion, was charged with possession of a machine gun, aggravated battery by discharge of a firearm, two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, aggravated domestic battery and felon in possession of a weapon.
The Zion Fire Rescue Department and Zion Police Department responded around 7:58 p.m. Saturday to the 2800 block of Emmaus Avenue in Zion for a report of a shooting.
Officers responding to 911 calls made by two people found a gunshot victim and paramedics rushed him to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville for treatment.
The victim, who prosecutors initially said was a 28-year-old man but then later said was a 20-year-old man, had been shot in the left thigh and Darden-Patrick had fled the scene.
Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen McConnell said the victim told officers, who were rendering aid, that his brother, Darden-Patrick, had shot him. The victim’s younger brother and their mother also said the same.
Officers secured the residence and located multiple spent 10mm shell casings, including two in the kitchen and hallway and one in the front bedroom area where the victim had been shot.
Officers also located projectiles in multiple areas of the home, including one in an interior wall.
McConnell said the 14-year-old brother was interviewed and said he was in the hallway looking into the bedroom where Darden-Patrick and the victim were involved in an argument when he saw Darden-Patrick pull out a black handgun and shoot the victim.
The boy heard the shot and ducked back into a bedroom before he poked his head back into the hallway to see if it was clear.
He saw a bullet fly right by his face down the hallway from the kitchen and then heard three shots fired in rapid succession, McConnell said.
He jumped back into his room and saw Darden-Patrick leave the house, come back into the house, grab a backpack and leave the house again.
Officers determined that the bullet missed the child’s face by mere inches, McConnell said.
The mother was also interviewed and she said she had just come back from church and Darden-Patrick had been home for 10 minutes when they got into an altercation in her room, McConnell said.
She said Darden-Patrick was being disrespectful to her and the victim tried to intervene when she saw Darden-Patrick pull out the handgun, leading the victim to try and take the gun away before he shot the victim, McConnell said.
The mother ran outside and heard three more gunshots in quick succession before seeing Darden-Patrick flee the house.
While the two witnesses were at the police department, Darden-Patrick began texting his mother repeatedly asking about his brother’s condition as well as the child, McConnell said.
Darden-Patrick gave his mother different locations that he was at as officers searched for him.
McConnell said Darden-Patrick eventually agreed to let his mother pay for a Lyft to pick him up to take him to a hotel.
The rideshare was a ploy and the driver was actually a Zion police detective in an undercover vehicle with other officers staging nearby.
Darden-Patrick entered the “Lyft” and the detective ran from the car and engaged the child locks, McConnell said.
Officers swarmed the vehicle and ordered Darden-Patrick out of the car and took him into custody.
McConnell said officers recovered a 10mm Glock 29 with a “switch” attached, rendering the gun fully automatic, from Darden-Patrick’s sweatshirt pocket.
The victim gave the same version of events but added that Darden-Patrick punched him in the face prior to shooting him.
The family additionally told police that Darden-Patrick is schizophrenic and non-compliant with his medications, which had put the entire family in fear for their lives, McConnell said.
Detectives also already had an ongoing investigation from early December where Darden-Patrick is suspected of having shot at the same victim and one of his friends in the home.
Darden-Patrick is currently on probation for aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon and he was ordered not to possess firearms.
A memorandum was filed in that case indicating that Darden-Patrick violated numerous terms of his probation, including threatening to kill his mother over text message and possessing firearm parts and ammunition on December 17.
In the December 17 case, Darden-Patrick was accused of pointing a gun at a driver, causing them to crash as they avoided being shot.
Officers were unable to locate a gun in Darden-Patrick’s possession at the time but did find a 10mm handgun magazine base and a 10mm 28-round magazine without a base plate, a spent 10mm shell casing and a live 9mm round.
Darden-Patrick was placed on pre-trial release in that case on December 18 because he was only charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which is a misdemeanor and non-detainable under the Illinois SAFE-T Act.
It is unclear why he was not charged with unlawful possession of ammunition by a felon, which is a detainable offense.
“Just since mid-December this Defendant has now been involved in three separate cases where he was seen to have a firearm and to be utilizing it in a dangerous manner all while on probation for a weapons offense which is obviously incredibly concerning. It is obviously even more incredibly concerning that two of those situations include this Defendant shooting a firearm at his brother,” McConnell said.
“This Defendant is incredibly incredibly lucky that he did not kill one or both of his brothers this time. The fact that this Defendant has had numerous and repeated police contacts since mid-December where he knows that the police have concerns about him shooting firearms and yet he still chose to arm himself not only with a firearm but with a firearm that was converted to a machine gun and chose to discharge it multiple times at multiple family members clearly shows that this Defendant is an extreme danger to his family,” McConnell said.
The prosecutor said Darden-Patrick made it clear that he will kill his family if he is released as she argued for him to be detained pending trial.
Lake County Judge Michael Nerheim granted the petition to detain filed by the state’s attorney’s office during a detention hearing on Monday afternoon.
Darden-Patrick remains held in the Lake County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court again on January 27 for a preliminary hearing.