https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/as ... ar-AAFnozu
In recorded calls from the Cook County Jail, Tucker, who'd recently served more than a decade in prison for shooting someone, was quite philosophical about landing back behind bars, according to federal court records.
After all, if he hadn't been arrested carrying the gun, he almost certainly would've been caught for something far worse — perhaps even murder, Tucker allegedly said in the calls.
"Everything happens for a reason, man," Tucker told a friend three days after his February arrest, according to a federal criminal complaint filed last month. "Think about it, man. This summertime, what I was doing, where I was headed this summertime, man, I would have gotten caught shooting that mother*****r ... That would've been life in (prison)."
The same call offered a rare moment of candor by a reputed gang member on how the reality of the city's streets had forced him to carry a "pole" — street slang for a gun — for protection, according to the complaint. The only solution, he said, was to move out of Chicago.
"Boy, I quit," authorities quoted Tucker as saying on the call. "I can't carry no pole no more. I'm through. Only way I gotta do that is I gotta get out of Chicago. ... I can't be without it in Chicago, you know how that s**t go."
Tucker's c'est la vie attitude on the calls reflects a stark honesty about the gun violence that continues to rage this summer in pockets of the South and West sides. Just last weekend, more than 40 people were shot on the city's streets, including a 12-year-old girl who was wounded in the leg while sitting on a porch in the West Englewood neighborhood and two mothers killed in a drive-by attack at an Englewood intersection where an anti-violence group has camped out every summer day since 2015.
Tucker, meanwhile, was arraigned Thursday in the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse for allegedly being a felon in possession of a handgun — a charge carrying up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
In earlier arguing to hold Tucker without bond, federal prosecutors blasted his attempt to find a "silver lining" in his arrest, saying Tucker's insistence on carrying a gun "directly contributes to the violence that is sadly afflicting our district and our city especially during the summer months."
"Frankly, your honor, you should take him at his word," Assistant U.S. Attorney Devlin Su said during the July 9 detention hearing. "Because if he's not detained he's going to be out there this summertime, shooting his gun, getting caught for attempted murder and murder. It doesn't get more serious than that."
Tucker's court-appointed attorney, Daniel Hesler, said Tucker had been doing well since being released from prison late last year, finding work as a dishwasher and reconnecting with his mother and sister. While incriminating, the jail recordings also indicate that Tucker was ready to put his gun-toting past behind him, Hesler said.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez agreed with prosecutors, saying in her order denying bond that it was clear Tucker "feels that he is stuck between the crosshairs of Chicago."
"So will he always make the right decision? I'm not sure of that," Valdez said.