A jury has found two men guilty for wounding three children in a 2022 Covington shootout that caught a crowd of kids and adults in the crossfire and left a 14-year-old girl permanently disabled.
Taquan Estes, 21, and Thomas Brown, 46, were convicted on Oct. 13 of first-degree assault, rioting and wanton endangerment at the end of a four-day trial in Kenton County Circuit Court.
Jurors found Estes not guilty of an additional assault count for shooting Brown, seemingly agreeing with his attorneys that it was self-defense.
Prosecutors said the shooting happened in April 2022 as a group of “onlookers and encouragers” filled an alleyway to watch as a 15-year-old and 17-year-old fought – a brawl incited by the younger girl’s mom.
Prosecutors said Brown
drew a handgun first. Estes then opened fire toward Brown through a crowd of adults and children gathered in the alley.
Three children, including Brown's son, were injured. A 14-year-old girl recording the fight was left permanently paralyzed. Brown was also wounded, shot in the abdomen and in the buttocks.
“Every one of those bullets could’ve killed somebody,” Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders told the jury.
Both men were barred from possessing firearms
Prosecutors said neither man tried to stop the fight and they both escalated an already tumultuous situation by introducing guns, which they never should’ve owned.
Brown is legally barred from gun ownership because of felony convictions. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to illegally owning a handgun during the gunfight and was sentenced to 10 years.
Estes had recently turned 17 and was too young to legally possess a handgun. He admitted in court to buying the gun from someone he met on social media. Court filings show Estes named in numerous police reports as early as 2018, many involving firearms.
Late last year, Estes was found guilty of shooting at three people in the parking lot of a Covington gas station just weeks before the alleyway gunfight. He was sentenced to nine years and is appealing the convictions.
He was previously adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court for possessing a handgun as a minor and conspiracy to first-degree assault, according to trial testimony.
Teen shooter ‘panicked’ when firing into crowd of kids
Estes’ attorneys argued that their client was a teenage boy forced into a perilous situation by adults encouraging a fistfight between children. He only pulled a gun to protect himself, they said, afraid Brown was going to shoot someone in the crowd.
“Taquan did not have that gun because he intended to use it,” Katelyn Sanders, one of the attorneys, said in court. She added that video of the shooting showed Brown running away as the gunfire rang out, wildly returning fire with his back turned.
Estes testified that he’d gone to a friend’s house to play video games and do laundry when he learned a fight was about to happen in the alley. He said he went outside to see what was going on and tried to break up the melee.
The entire time, Estes was holding onto a handgun concealed inside a jacket pocket with a broken zipper.
Brown arrived after the fight began, Estes said, adding that the man ran down the alley clutching a gun in his waistband. He said he tried to get Brown to intervene without success.
Estes said something about Brown made him uneasy, then he heard the sound of a firearm being racked. He looked back and saw Brown raising a handgun into the air. He reacted by pulling his own handgun and firing at Brown despite dozens of adults and children standing between them.
He admitted to striking all three children and Brown.
“Everything was going so fast and I panicked,” Estes said. “I didn’t want to shoot him, but I felt like I had to.”
On the witness stand, Brown said he fired a single “warning shot” in the air to break up the brawl.
“I never put nobody in danger,” Brown said.
His attorney, Dennis Alerding, argued that Brown didn’t shoot anyone and Estes was solely responsible for the children’s injuries. He disputed that the video evidence showed Brown exchanging fire with the teen.
“Shooting a gun in the air is not shooting three people,” Alerding said.
Jury recommends 20-year sentence
Rob Sanders, the prosecutor, said it ultimately doesn’t matter which of them fired the rounds that struck the children. Both share responsibility and neither should’ve carried a gun.
“None of this happens if these two men don’t turn a girl fight into a gunfight,” Sanders said. “Both men knew exactly what they were doing.”
Sanders asked the jury to recommend the maximum sentence of 65 years in prison, saying it’s as proportionate a punishment as the law provides for a shooting that left a girl in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
“Each one of these victims deserves their own justice,” he said. Jurors ultimately recommended a 20-year prison term for both men.
Estes and Brown will appear before Judge Patricia Summe for final sentencing at a later date.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'Could've killed somebody.' Men convicted of injuring 3 kids in gunfight
