When an unknown man shot at a group including Joshua Hughes just after West Side’s June 5, 2022, high school graduation ceremony at the Railcats stadium, he and his younger brother took out guns and fired back.
Hughes, now 20, recently inked a plea deal to avoid prison.
He admitted to criminal recklessness, a Level 6 felony, on July 29, court records show. If a judge accepts, he would spend one year on home detention and six months on probation. Hughes can later petition to knock the charge down to a misdemeanor.
His sentencing hearing is Aug. 29.
Hughes was charged as an adult when he turned 18 less than a week after the shooting. His brother went through juvenile court. Nearly 200 students had been scheduled to graduate.
Court documents allege Hughes and the other teen, then 16, were both in caps and gowns when they allegedly fired shots back toward “several individuals” across the street from the U.S. Steel Yard at 5th Avenue and Maryland Street, the affidavit states.
A person in “dark clothing” wearing a mask had walked up to them wearing their caps and gowns in Lot B on the stadium’s east side and opened fire, security footage showed, according to court documents.
Multiple people took cover behind cars as the ceremony let out, charges state. A woman, 19, was shot in the lower right leg, while a second man, 19, was hit once in the upper right chest, records state.
The man who shot first was never identified.
mcolias@post-trib.com