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Jailed Rapper Targeted in 2 Shootings Pleads Guilty, Released

By Benjamin Woodard | February 11, 2015 4:26pm
 Shaquon Thomas, 19, raps under the name Young Pappy.
Shaquon Thomas, 19, raps under the name Young Pappy.
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ROSCOE VILLAGE — Rapper Young Pappy, who police said was targeted in a pair of shootings in Rogers Park that killed two others, was released from lockup after pleading guilty Wednesday to a reckless conduct charge.

Young Pappy — whose real name is Shaquon Thomas — appeared in jail scrubs before Cook County Circuit associate Judge Anthony Calabrese and entered a guilty plea alongside a public defender.

Thomas was then ordered to be released after time served of 29 days.

"Good luck to you," Calabrese said to Thomas inside the Branch 29 courtroom at 2452 W. Belmont Ave.

An officer assigned to the Rogers Park Police District was also present.

Thomas survived a shooting attempt last year that left a 17-year-old dead outside a Rogers Park McDonald's, and later was unscathed when a bullet intended for him instead killed a photographer waiting for a bus, police have said.

But on Jan. 14, Thomas allegedly went back to that same McDonald's at 6740 N. Clark St., where he got in a fight with a man who later was shot across the street from the restaurant, according to a police report.

The rapper could be seen on surveillance camera footage "verbally assaulting" the man who later was shot, according to a police report. The commotion caused customers to rush out of the restaurant.

After the altercation, officers responded to shots fired in the 1600 block of West Columbia Avenue, where they found the victim, the report said.

He was arrested at his mother's home shortly after. He was also charged with felony possession of marijuana, but that charge was dropped last week after a finding of no probable cause, according to court records.

Last February, surveillance video captured a masked gunman opening fire on the rapper and the group he was walking with outside the McDonald's, striking him in the arm and killing 17-year-old Markeyo Carr.

Then, on July 12, photographer Wil Lewis was killed by a stray bullet when another shooter opened fire at the rapper, who was walking in the 1300 block of Devon Avenue, police said.

Thomas' mother, Ingrid Thomas, said in January that there was no evidence to prove her son was the target of any shootings.

"I could believe that if my son was the only person out there, but he wasn't," she said, standing at the front door of the home where her son was arrested two weeks earlier. "I don't believe the police. They don't have proof."

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