Aspiring New Jersey filmmaker gets probation for using gun as prop
Taquan Allen in his video Poetry "Privilege". (Image from YouTube video)
An aspiring filmmaker from Camden, NJ., won’t have to go to prison for using a real gun as a prop.
Ta’Quan Allen pleaded guilty to improper disposal of a firearm and will receive a probationary sentence. The video above features Allen doing performance poetry about his life on Camden streets.
The 19-year-old Allen’s attorney tells The Philadelphia Inquirer he initially was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, which could have put him in prison for as long as five years.
Allen says he was arrested in May while he was making a short film with friends. The film is about a young man who shoots his best friend when the friend won’t give him money to buy drugs.
Allen is a graduate of Camden’s Creative Arts Morgan Village Academy.
In March of this year, The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a profile of Allen when he just finished a two-week stint as a production assistant for the stand-up, hip-hop comedy show Nick Cannon Presents: Wild ‘N Out. “I wanted to cry every second, because I was around everything I ever dreamed of,” Allen said.
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