Rep. Anthony DeLuca, community leaders call for state legislature to mandate services for repeat juvenile gun offenders

Lisa Daniels, the founder and executive director of the Darren B. Easterling Center for Restorative Practices, said her youngest son, Darren, was fatally shot in Park Forest in July 2012 during a robbery.

Her son had a criminal record and was committing a crime before he was shot, Daniels said, and because of that she has held him accountable for his actions posthumously.

“Yet I firmly believe that had he had the options presented in House Bill 4453, had those options been available during his younger years, his story might have ended just a bit differently,” Daniels said.

State Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, and community leaders called on state legislators to pass his bill that addresses repeat gun offenders, during a meeting Wednesday with police chiefs and command staff at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights.

House Bill 4453 states if a juvenile has previously been placed on probation for or convicted of a gun offense that did not result in injury, then judges should require the juvenile to participate in social service programs for three months.