A convicted drug dealer, got a second chance after one forgive by former president Barack Obamahas been arrested for attempted murder in a shooting that left a woman traumatized brain damagesaid the police.
Alton Mills, 54, had his life sentence commuted in 2015 after serving 22 years.
In the early hours of Sunday, a group of friends in a car leaving a nightclub rammed Mr. Mills’ SUV at a red light in Posen, near Chicago, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Kathryn Morrissey.
Mr Mills is said to have then rushed up to the other car, rolled down his window and fired three shots. A bullet hit a woman who was sleeping in the back seat of the car and doctors have said they do not expect her to survive her injuries. Her name has not been released.
The driver of the vehicle pulled into a fire station to call 911, and Illinois State Police tracked down Mr. Mills. Investigators said Mr. Mills admitted to firing the shots.
He was charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and is being held in the Cook County Jail.
Police subsequently searched Mr. Mills’ home and found .40-caliber bullets matching those used in the shooting. His vehicle also tested positive for gunshot residue.
Mr. Mills was arrested in 1993 on federal conspiracy charges for selling cocaine and later convicted. Although he was found with less than five grams of crack cocaine in his possession, prosecutors sought an enhancement of the charge that raised his sentence to life in prison, according to Daily Mail.
Alton Mills, 54, is charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder
(Illinois State Police)
The call for Mr. Mills to be pardoned began with Democratic Senator Dick Durbin. He requested that his sentence be shortened, noting that Mill’s first two drug convictions did not result in prison time.
The case of Mr. Mills was rolled into a broader initiative by the Obama administration to grant clemency to non-violent criminals jailed during America’s war on drugs in the 1990s, which disproportionately targeted black people.
Senator Durbin then argued that Mr. Mills had shown personal growth during two decades in prison, and that he had community support waiting for him in Chicago.
Upon his release, Mr. Mills began working as a mechanic in Chicago before taking a job as a janitor.
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