Shooting victim gets jail time on gun charge

NORRISTOWN >> A Philadelphia man who suffered a gunshot wound during a shooting incident in Pottstown was sent to prison after he admitted to illegally carrying a gun in the borough at the time he was shot.

Aaron Jaquan Scott, 23, of the 300 block of Erie Avenue, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 1½-to-5-years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of firearms not to be carried without a license in connection with a September 2018

incident in Pottstown.

The sentence was imposed by Judge Steven T. O’Neill.

An investigation began about 8:39 p.m. Sept. 19 when Pottstown police responded to the area of North Charlotte and Chestnut streets for a report of shots fired and several males with guns in the area, according to the criminal complaint filed by Pottstown Police Officer David Mull.

Arriving officers found six .380-caliber shell casings in the area of the 300 block of Chestnut Street, according to court papers.

A short time later, police received information that a man was at Pottstown Hospital being treated for a gunshot wound to his left hip. That man was identified as Scott, according to the criminal complaint.

When police interviewed Scott he claimed he was in the 300 block of Chestnut Street when he heard gunshots and ran and suddenly realized he had been shot.

“Scott claimed that he did not see who shot him and does not know why anyone would be shooting at him,” Mull alleged in the arrest affidavit. “Scott said that he ran north between some houses and stopped someone at Beech and Evans streets to give him a ride to the hospital.”

Scott was “evasive and not specific” about how he came to be in the 300 block of Chestnut Street, police alleged.

During the investigation, multiple witnesses were interviewed and police obtained video surveillance from multiple cameras in the area.

The video footage showed Scott parking a vehicle on Evans Street, north of Chestnut Street, exiting the vehicle and then walking to the southwest corner of Evans and Chestnut streets, according to the criminal complaint.

“He was only there for a couple of seconds before he clearly pulled a handgun out of his right pants pocket and walked westbound onto Chestnut Street,” Mull alleged in the arrest affidavit. “Once on Chestnut Street, Scott is seen putting the handgun into the inside of the front waistband of his pants.”

Less than two minutes later, police alleged, Scott could be seen running eastbound on Chestnut Street and then north on Evans Street.

“Prior to and after the shooting, there were multiple people and children outside in the area, including a woman walking with her infant in a stroller and church van full of children driving on Chestnut Street,” Mull alleged.