Quincy man gets 24 months conditional discharge in close of TJ Maxx shooting case

Published 6:29 pm Wednesday, June 17, 2026

QUINCY — A Quincy man was sentenced to two years of conditional release, putting an end to the case that began with a shooting near the city’s TJ Maxx store.

Alan Pacheco, 23, was found guilty in a two-day bench trial in April of a violation of Illinois’s unlawful use of weapons law for the possession of a loaded handgun without a concealed carry license.

Judge Holly Henze found Pacheco not guilty of two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of aggravated battery by the discharge of a firearm. An additional charge of attempted murder was dismissed on a directed finding after the prosecution presented its case in the trial.

Henze ruled that there was sufficient evidence that Pacheo was acting in defense of himself or others after he fired several shots at two men that Pacheco claimed were threatening himself and his girlfriend.

In July of 2024, Pacheco and his girlfriend were shopping in t.J Maxx when two men, who had previously had an altercation with Pacheco, appeared in the store and made threats to Pacheco, according to testimony in the trial.

During the trial it was confirmed that neither man showed a firearm to Pacheco, but that they implied they had one available. A later search of the scene after the shooting confirmed a loaded handgun in the possession of one of the men.

As testified to at the bench trial, Pacheco fled the scene with his girlfriend driving to get away from the two reported assailants but had her immediately circle back to surrender himself to authorities.

At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, the court heard from a representative of the county’s pretrial services office, who reported that Pacheco had over 450 violations of his pretrial release GPS monitoring, including regular trips out of state without first getting permission from the court.

Henze took note of these violations but said that if she were to continue to limit his travel, it would put him in a difficult position of maintaining employment, including potential job interviews as a recent college graduate. Henze also noted that with no additional criminal violations, it would require resources from the county’s probation department that could be better utilized in other cases.

Pacheco was sentenced to 364 days of jail time in the Adams County Jail, with credit for 154 days served in 2024 before he was released pending trial. The remaining 210 days of jail time were stayed pending successful completion of the two years conditional discharge with no new criminal charges.

Conditional discharge is similar to probation where the court can impose additional terms on the release but that does not require regular check-ins with the probation department or other monitoring from authorities. In Pacheco’s case, no additional terms were added other than the prohibition against additional criminal behavior on his part.