CHICAGO – A Taft High School student who shot two classmates as they walked home from class last year, leaving one with a graze wound, was given a 10-year prison sentence Thursday.
Jaden Rivera was a 17-year-old college sophomore at the time of the shooting on April 13, 2023, but prosecutors processed his case in the adult system.
Prosecutors said two male students, ages 17 and 18, saw Rivera sitting in his gold Cadillac in the faculty parking lot and talking to a staff member as they left the school, 6530 West Bryn Mawr, officials said. Rivera was dating the 17-year-old’s ex-girlfriend at the time, and the boys had previously fought at school, but no one had ever been arrested.
The victims saw Rivera’s gold Cadillac passing through several streets as they ordered food from a Subway and then walked through the neighborhood.
When they reached a 7-Eleven near Higgins and McVicker, the younger boy reportedly saw Rivera walking into the street, wearing a ski mask. Prosecutors said the boy recognized Rivera because he was wearing the same clothes he wore that day at school.
Rivera stopped, raised a gun and fired three shots, officials alleged. As Rivera fired the shots, one of the victims reportedly saw the gold Cadillac parked at the mouth of a nearby alley with Rivera’s girlfriend in the driver’s seat.
The 17-year-old suffered a minor abrasion and did not require medical attention. The other boy fled to safety without injury.
Rivera struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm toward an occupied vehicle. A more serious charge of aggravated battery by discharging a firearm was one of several crimes dropped in the agreement.
Judge Alexandra Gillespie sentenced Rivera to 10 years on each charge, with the terms to be served concurrently.
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