East St. Louis men shot woman in head with semiautomatic rifle, charges say

Two East St. Louis men who were apprehended during a shootout with police at a McDonald's drive-thru were charged Monday with shooting a woman in the head with a semiautomatic rifle.

Antoine Johnson, 27, and Branden Shannon, 32, are accused of shooting Patricia Hardin-Williams and Terry Williams on Feb. 18. The pair was spotted in the drive-thru at an East St. Louis McDonald's at 5:30 a.m. Feb. 18, a half-hour after a shooting at a Washington Park residence, and engaged in a shootout with police. Johnson was shot in the hip during the exchange.

At a Washington Park residence, Hardin-Williams was shot in the head, and Williams was struck and injured by either a bullet or glass fragments, said Illinois State Police Lt. Calvin Brown. Neither injury was life-threatening.

The two men allegedly fired shots into the Washington Park residence, Brown said.

Shannon and Johnson initially were charged in federal court with being in possession of a firearm as felons. The charges were still pending as of Thursday.

Both men were charged Monday in St. Clair County Circuit Court with aggravated discharge of a firearm, two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and having a firearm as a felon. Neither had been taken into custody as of Thursday afternoon.

This story was originally published June 14, 2018 at 5:52 PM with the headline "East St. Louis men shot woman in head with semiautomatic rifle, charges say."