A federal decide on Thursday sentenced a 38-year-old man to just about 5 years in jail for firing a gun throughout a shootout throughout from Wrigley Subject final 12 months.
Raphael Hammond, of Chicago, was sentenced to 57 months in federal jail by U.S. District Decide Lindsay Jenkins after pleading responsible to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Prosecutors stated Hammond was on federal supervised launch for a previous gun conviction when he pulled out a Ruger pistol and fired towards a fleeing SUV within the early morning hours of Could 5, 2024.
“He engaged in a shoot-out throughout the road from Wrigley Subject,” prosecutors stated bluntly in a sentencing memorandum.
Surveillance video captured the chaotic sequence that started when a gunman in a purple floral hoodie exited a darkish SUV and opened hearth on Hammond at shut vary. Hammond bumped into the bowling alley however then returned moments later, taking pictures a number of instances down the sidewalk towards the automobile because it sped away. Two bystanders had been injured within the shootout, however Hammond was not accused of inflicting these accidents.
Hammond hid his gun in a planter throughout from the ballpark, waved down Chicago cops to help his wounded pal, after which quietly left the scene. Officers later recovered the pistol from the planter and decided it had been fired a number of instances.
Prosecutors stated Hammond’s life has been outlined by weapons and gunfire: “From being recognized by a gunshot sufferer because the shooter in 2006, to being a gunshot sufferer himself at the very least 4 instances, to convictions for unlawful gun possession in 2008 and 2018.”
“Regardless of taking pictures them, being shot himself, and spending time in each state and federal jail for possessing them, on Could 5, 2024, [he again] possessed a gun, after which shot it at somebody, endangering the lives of everybody within the neighborhood,” prosecutors wrote of their sentencing memorandum.
Prosecutors urged the decide to impose a 100-month sentence, calling Hammond a “vital risk to public security” whose “abject callousness” in operating down a busy road, taking pictures at a fleeing automobile, confirmed disregard for human life.
Hammond’s lawyer, Patrick Boyle, sought a 42-month sentence, 15 months lower than the bottom sentence beneath federal pointers.
“Raphael Hammond is a well mannered, respectful, and considerate 38-year-old man,” Boyle argued.
The submitting described Hammond as a traumatized gunshot survivor who grew up within the Cabrini-Inexperienced housing initiatives, misplaced each mother and father by age 5, and endured a lifetime of violence that included 4 shootings earlier than the Wrigleyville incident.
He argued Hammond’s response that night time was a “split-second determination pushed by worry” after years of residing in survival mode. Hammond’s household submitted letters of assist to the court docket. A type of letters got here from Hammond’s 18-year-old son, Steven, who was himself shot to dying in Uptown on September 26.
Decide Jenkins finally imposed a 57-month sentence, the low finish of the federal guideline vary, adopted by three years of supervised launch.
