Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Damone McFerren, 28, of Mishawaka, Indiana, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Damon R. Leichty after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced U.S. Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

McFerren was sentenced to 102 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, in October 2022, following a verbal argument in a South Bend residence, McFerren fired three gunshots at one of the persons inside the house. Officers who responded to the scene were able to recover the firearm McFerren attempted to hide in a discarded tire in the alley he ran to after leaving the residence. At the time of the offense, McFerren was on federal supervised release for a felony drug conviction, and he had multiple prior felony convictions, any one of which prohibited him from possessing the firearm.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the assistance of the South Bend Police Department and the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelan McKenzie Doyle.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities and measuring the results.

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