Department of Justice
For Immediate Release
Man Sentenced to Seven Years in Federal Prison for Illegally Possessing Loaded Gun on a Chicago Street
CHICAGO — A man who illegally possessed a loaded handgun on a Chicago street and tried to flee from police has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison.
BRANDON ELLIS, 30, of Chicago, illegally possessed the firearm in the early morning hours of August 15, 2021. Ellis was observed via a Chicago Police Department (CPD) surveillance camera lifting his shirt to brandish a weapon in his waistband to another individual. When CPD officers approached and directed defendant to stop, he ran from the officers. Officers recovered a semiautomatic pistol from defendant’s waistband. The pistol was previously reported stolen.
Ellis pleaded guilty earlier this year to a federal charge of illegal possession of a firearm. This is Ellis’s third conviction for illegally possessing a firearm in the last five years, having completed a term of imprisonment on federal charges less than four months prior.
U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman on November 2, 2022, imposed an 84-month prison sentence.
“By carrying a gun as a convicted felon in a high-crime area—and then brandishing that gun—he affirmatively created a volatile and potentially deadly situation on a street filled with people” Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Didwania argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “The law must make clear—through the sentence this Court imposes—that Ellis cannot break the rules with impunity; that this Court will protect the public from him; and that he will be punished severely until he stops.”
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.
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.