A Cook County jury tonight convicted a reputed gang member charged in the 2009 murder of a Chicago police officer.
After deliberating for nearly 2 1/2 hours, the jury found Shawn Gaston, 22, guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder in the fatal shooting of Officer Alejandro “Alex” Valadez, 27.
Prosecutors have said that Gaston was out for revenge early on June 1, 2009, after he and other alleged gang members were shot at by rivals in the 6000 block of South Hermitage Avenue. Valadez was investigating that shooting when Gaston and the others allegedly returned in his mother's car a few minutes later and fired several shots, killing Valadez, prosecutors said.
Valadez's partner, Officer Thomas Vargas, testified last week that he dove to the ground when he heard the shots and saw Valadez fall after he was hit. Vargas was not injured.
Two co-defendants also charged in the murder will be tried later.
On Tuesday, prosecutors played a 20-minute videotaped statement from Gaston in which he admitted firing from a car “like, four times.” Prosecutors acknowledged that Gaston was not told that a police officer had been shot before he made his admissions.
Gaston said in the recording that they then ditched the gun under a porch and parked the car near his mother's house a few blocks from the shooting. He was at a party on his neighbor's porch drinking tequila about an hour later when police arrested him.
Police later found three guns -- a .357-caliber revolver, a .40-caliber handgun and a rifle -- in the car's trunk, prosecutors said. The shots that struck Valadez were fired from the revolver, prosecutors said.
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