CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for illegally possessing a loaded handgun in the city’s Humboldt Park neighborhood.
EDDIE JONES, 28, illegally possessed the gun in the 800 block of North Homan Avenue on June 5, 2020. Chicago Police officers responding to the sound of gunfire observed Jones running along the street and tossing the gun into a vacant lot. The firearm was equipped with a laser scope and loaded with multiple rounds of ammunition. Further investigation revealed that three victims were wounded by gunfire moments before the officers encountered Jones.
Jones pleaded guilty earlier this year to a federal charge of illegal possession of a firearm. He had previously been convicted of felonies in state court, including firearm-related offenses, and was prohibited by federal law from possessing the gun.
In imposing the prison sentence Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah found that Jones used the handgun in the attempted murders of the three wounded victims.
The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Kristen de Tineo, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and David Brown, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Cornelius A. Vandenberg.
Holding illegal firearm possessors accountable through federal prosecution is a centerpiece of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction strategy. In the Northern District of Illinois, U.S. Attorney Lausch and law enforcement partners have deployed the PSN program to attack a broad range of violent crime issues facing the district, particularly firearm offenses.
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