Jalisa Hooks, 21, plays with her 2-year-old son, Kayden Swann, in the family’s South Chicago neighborhood apartment on the South Side, Tuesday morning, March 1, 2022. Kayden is blind in his right eye after he was shot in the head on April 6, 2021, during a road rage incident on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
A man who opened fire during a road rage attack on Lake Shore Drive, critically wounding a toddler, has been sentenced to four years in prison under a plea deal with prosecutors.
Deandre Binion, 27, initially faced nearly 20 felony charges — including attempted murder — in connection with the April 2021 shooting that wounded 22-month-old Kayden Swann in the head.
But under an agreement reached with the state’s attorney’s office, all the charges were dropped last Friday except for one count of aggravated discharge of a weapon.
A spokeswoman for the office declined to comment on the decision.
Deandre Binion
Illinois Department of Corrections
Kayden was riding with his grandmother and her boyfriend Jushawn Brown near Grant Park when Brown thought Binion was following too closely to their car.
Brown leaned out the window and told Binion to “back off,” saying there was a child in the car, prosecutors said at Binion’s first court appearance.
Binion then followed Brown’s car and flashed a gun at him, leading Brown to pull out his own gun and show it to Binion, prosecutors said.
Binion fired at least four times from his SUV, then stopped in traffic, got out and fired at least four more shots, prosecutors said.
Binion drove away and Brown crashed as he tried to seek help for Kayden, who was brought to Lurie Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
A bullet had passed through the boy’s head, severing the optic nerve of his right eye and leaving him partially blind.
Binion was initially held without bail but was released after posting $50,000 bond following a hearing in December that same year.
He will receive credit off his sentence for the 906 days he spent in Cook County Jail and on electronic home monitoring. He was transferred to Stateville Correction Center and is expected to be released in August next year, according to state prison records.
Binion’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
