Man gets 10 years in prison for shooting towards Alton school bus

A young Alton man convicted of shooting towards a school bus last year was sentenced on Friday to ten years in prison.

Daniel G. Coalan, 19, pleaded guilty to aggravated discharge of a firearm earlier Friday, a news release from the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office says. The offense is a Class X felony, a spokesperson from the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office clarified.

On the evening of Feb. 26, 2025, an Alton School District bus was dropping off students who attended evening classes near the 1200 block of Central Avenue when shots rang out, police previously said.

The bus was not hit and no injuries were reported, but charges against Coalan’s co-defendant, 18-year-old Jayvon R. Walton, of Wood River, alleged he targeted a student who fled the bus. The news release detailing Coalan’s plea says he and Walton were in a dispute with the student.

Walton was 16 at the time of the shooting but will be tried as an adult, and Coalan was 18. Neither were students in the Alton School District at the time of the shooting, a previous news report says.

Coalan was originally charged with four felony counts in relation to the incident. The first was the Class X aggravated discharge of a firearm offense for shooting in the direction of an occupied school bus. He was also charged with a Class I felony offense of aggravated discharge of a firearm and two Class 4 felonies for aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon.

But the three lesser felony charges Coalan sustained were dismissed when he pleaded guilty to the Class X felony, a spokesperson from the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office clarified.

Walton is currently awaiting trial. He is charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder, a Class X felony; one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm, a Class I felony; and two counts of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon, both Class 4 felonies.