Bail set for Chicago man arrested in connection to shooting
CHICAGO (AP) - Bail was set at $300,000 Monday for a man facing gun charges in connection with a weekend house party shooting in Chicago that left 13 wounded, though tests that could potentially tie him directly to the shooting haven't been completed.
Marciano White, 37, is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and as an armed habitual criminal after police stopped him as he carried a bag near the house in the city's Englewood neighborhood. In it, they found a .357-caliber pistol, a prosecutor told a Monday bond hearing.
The Chicago Sun-Times cited public defender Scott Finger as saying at the hearing that there's no evidence to date that White shot anyone, noting his client's two prior convictions were for non-violent offenses.
'Å“I haven't heard any eyewitness that says he's the one that did the shooting," he said.
An assistant state's Cook County state's attorney, James Murphy, told the Monday hearing that tests on the gun would help determine if it was used in the early Sunday shooting.
According to prosecutors, White had said he was at the party, but he insisted he had hid in a closet when the shooting began. He also said he saw the gun on a staircase and picked it up as he fled.
Finger told Monday's bond hearing that White's family had raised $5,000, which is short of the $30,000 required to secure his release pending trial.
The shooting stemmed from a dispute at what was a memorial party, police have said. Shots were first fired just after 12:30 a.m. at the party, which was being held in honor of someone killed in April.
The victims range in age from 16 to 48. Police have said that someone appeared to be shooting randomly at people.
Police described three different shooting scenes at the residential location in the city's Englewood neighborhood, a predominantly low-income stretch of the city roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of downtown that has high crime. The shooting started inside, then more shots were fired as people began spilling out of the house. Shots were also fired at a third place nearby.