2 Charged In Connection With Chicago Paintball Shooting

Two men are charged in connection with a spike in paintball attacks across Chicago in recent weeks.

David Cox, 20, and Deonte Gibson, 18, are among the first to face charges, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday (November 2).

There have been hundreds of paintball attacks spanning the city during September and October, primarily on the south and west sides, according to the Sun-Times.

“We’ve got young men driving around the city of Chicago with paintball guns,” Judge David Navarro said Monday. “Somebody just standing there, getting hit out of the blue, would be painful, shocking, aggravating — to say the least.”

Law enforcement and eye doctors have been warning Chicagoans of the influx in paintball shootings — and injuries because of them — since last month. Injuries ranged from bleeding to vision loss.

Cook County prosecutors said Cox and Gibson fired a paintball gun several times at a man walking to work, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The man who was shot with paintballs on his way to work said he didn’t know Cox or Gibson, both of whom live with their mothers, according to their attorney.

Gibson was allegedly driving the vehicle and Cox sat in the back seat with the paintball gun. Another individual, a juvenile charged with reckless conduct, sat in the front passenger seat.

Cox and Gibson are held on a $10,000 bond and are slated to appear in court again next week.

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