The teen was injured when a group of gunmen speeding away from a deadly shooting in the Allerton section crashed into his car.
Despite the teen saying he was not involved in the shooting, police arrested him while he was in the hospital.
In the brief court appearance, the teen had nearly three dozen family and friends show up to support him.
"He was nervous. I mean, I can imagine a kid that just turned 18 years old, you know, never been into a crime and now he's just graduated high school and he's being brought up on weapons charges. This makes no sense," a friend said.
It was so crowded that the judge released any conditions surrounding his release to ROR.
"People are here for him. We are all definitely going to fight for him. I'm not sleeping. I'm definitely going to bat for him 100% all the time," a friend said.
A gun was discovered underneath a mangled Dodge minivan, driven by an 18-year-old accident victim a week ago, which is what landed him in court on Monday.
His entire family and their priest arrived in support to try and clear his name.
"Yeah, it was it was scary. But, you know, I will make it through. I will make it through," the teen said.
The family asked not to be identified by name out of safety concerns.
The recent high school graduate was struck by a car with alleged gang members fleeing a fatal drive-by shooting.
The teen is now facing four weapons and ammunition-related charges for a gun found on the ground and ammunition that was found on the dashboard.
But the family believes the gun was thrown from the suspect vehicle along with the two other guns and ammunition that was also scattered all over the street after the crash.
"If this was an 80-year-old woman driving that vehicle, no way would they have accused her of even having a weapon," a friend said.
Video from the night of the accident scene shows forensic crews removing an evidence marker from the dashboard of the minivan.
The ammunition presumably would have stayed in place after the impact of the crash and after the airbag deployed.
"They're not taking into consideration the fact that in the crash, it's very possible that the magazine flew through the window onto the dashboard. I don't think anybody took that into consideration as well."
The teen is anxiously awaiting forensic test results which he hopes will clear his name.
"The burden of proof is on the the city is on those police officers, the detectives, the DA, The burden of proof is on them. They accused my son. So, the burden of proof is on them," the father said.
The investigation is ongoing. There has been no grand jury action and the case will be back in court in October.
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