The alleged getaway driver in a deadly shooting on the Eisenhower Expressway has been charged with murder.
Dezhawn Seargent had been driving a borrowed SUV alongside a car a rival gang member was traveling in when two gunman inside Seargent’s SUV opened fire on the morning of Aug. 15, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Kevin DeBoni said Thursday.
The rival gang member was not injured.
Instead, the gunmen struck 19-year-old Lakasia Gregory in the head and leg on the Interstate 290 near Central Avenue, DeBoni said. Gregory was also in the vehicle that was driven by the girlfriend of the man the uncharged gunmen were targeting. That woman was also struck in the arm but survived, DeBoni said.
Seargent, 26, had borrowed the SUV used in the shooting hours earlier and drove the gunmen to the block where the victims were hanging out to conduct surveillance, DeBoni said.
When Gregory and the others got into their car and drove away, Seargent followed them onto the expressway and then sped up alongside them, DeBoni said.
ShotSpotter gunshot detectors recorded a barrage of gunfire from two different guns. Sixteen shell casings were collected and the victims’ car was struck 10 times, DeBoni said.
After the shooting, Seargent dropped the SUV back to the individual he borrowed it from, DeBoni said.
That woman later found a shell casing on her driveway near the front door of her SUV. The shell casing, later recovered by Illinois State Police investigators, matched the caliber and make of the casings found at the crime scene, DeBoni said.
Seargent was identified through surveillance videos and phone records, which showed he and one of the gunmen had communicated before and after the shooting, DeBoni said. Geo-tracking features on Seargent’s cellphone phone also allegedly matched the movements of the SUV before the murder.
Seargent grew up in the west suburbs, where he still has family, and graduated from Lyons Township High School, an assistant public defender said. Seargent was laid off during the pandemic and is currently unemployed, the defense attorney added.
Judge Mary Marubio ordered Seargent held without bail.
He is expected back in court July 8.
