Illinois man gets 182 years for fatal shooting of 4-year-old boy

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A southern Illinois man has been sentenced to 182 years in prison for his role in a shooting outside a grocery store that injured seven people, including a young boy who was left paralyzed.

A St. Clair County judge sentenced DeAngelo Higgs, 36, this week after he was convicted in August of seven counts of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, among other charges.

Higgs, of Madison, was one of three men charged in a September 2021 shooting outside an East St. Louis convenience store that injured seven people, including 3-year-old Mason Mitchell. Two other defendants were also convicted of the shooting.

Mason’s mother, Markisha Collins, had stopped at an East Side meat market after work to pick up lunch for her children when the shooting began and bullets hit her car.

Mason, who was sitting in the back seat with his 8-year-old brother, was hit by at least one bullet, causing a spinal injury that left him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, she said.

During Monday’s sentencing, Markisha Collins said in court that the shooting cost her her job and forced her family to find new housing that accommodates Mason’s special needs and purchase a vehicle that accommodates his wheelchair. Belleville News-Democrat informed.