A southern Illinois man has been sentenced to 182 years in prison for his role in a shooting outside a grocery store that wounded seven people, including a young boy who was left paralyzed.
A St. Clair County judge sentenced DeAngelo Higgs, 36, this week following his August conviction on seven counts each of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, and other charges.
Higgs, of Madison, was one of three men charged in the September 2021 shooting outside a store in East St. Louis that wounded seven people, including Mason Mitchell, who was 3 years old at the time. The two other defendants have also been convicted in the shooting.
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Mason’s mother, Marquisha Collins, had stopped at the East Side Meat Market after work to pick up dinner for her children when gunfire erupted and bullets struck her car.
Mason, who was seated in the back seat with his 8-year-old brother, was struck by at least one bullet, inflicting a spinal injury that left him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, she said.
Marquisha Collins told the court during Monday’s sentencing that the shooting cost her her job and forced her family to find new housing that suits Mason’s special needs and also purchase a car that accommodates his wheelchair, the Belleville News-Democrat reported.
