Three young men from Arizona, who were teenagers at the time, have been sentenced for a brutal drive-by shooting in 2023 that resulted in the death of a 5-year-old boy and injuries to other children and teenagers. The assailants, identified as Alfred Gary, 18, Freddy Patterson, 18, and Charles Adams, 20, reportedly fired over 20 rounds into a car carrying seven people, then went to dinner and returned to the crime scene to film a video, which they later used to boast about the incident, as per the prosecution.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office revealed that the deadly incident was gang-related. The three defendants were driving in Tempe when they encountered a car filled with seven individuals and opened fire. All three pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges, including second-degree murder, drive-by shooting, conspiracy to commit a drive-by shooting, and aggravated assault.
Gary received a 16-year prison sentence, while Patterson and Adams were each sentenced to 30 years, as announced by the attorney’s office. A fourth alleged shooter, Demarcus Frazier, 32, is still awaiting trial and could potentially face the death penalty.
The prosecution detailed that in March 2023, the defendants pulled up next to a black Impala at a red light near 48th Street and Broadway Road in Tempe. The car was occupied by seven people, mostly children and teenagers. After the shooting, which resulted in the death of a 5-year-old boy and injuries to a 17-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl, the defendants went to dinner and later returned to the crime scene to film a video.
Patterson and Adams, both documented members of a local Phoenix street gang, reportedly had a dispute with a rival gang member who was allegedly in the Impala. The pair received an additional 5-year sentence for a separate drive-by shooting in Phoenix that occurred two days prior to the Impala incident. In the earlier incident, they fired into a car carrying a mother and her two children, aged 3 and 14, but no one was injured.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell issued a statement condemning the actions of the young men and warning others against such behavior. She stated that individuals who show no regard for human life have no place in society and pledged her office’s continued efforts to combat illegal gang activity and the fear it instills in the community.