Press Release
Contact:
PHILLIP J. GREEN
ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY
PHONE: (616) 456-2404
FELON IN POSSESSION OF A SEMIAUTOMATIC RIFLE
SENTENCED TO SIX YEARS IN PRISON
JULY 18, 2008 -
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Antonio Darnell Reed, 23, of Battle Creek, was sentenced to 72
months in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, U.S. Attorney Charles R. Gross
announced today. U.S. District Judge Janet T. Neff also ordered that Reed serve three years of
supervised release after he completes his prison sentence.
On December 19, 2006, the Battle Creek Police Department responded to a call of shots fired on the southwest side of the city. Officers discovered that an individual clutching a gallon-sized bag of marijuana had been murdered in the street. In the course of the murder investigation, a search warrant was executed at Reed’s residence where officers found a Norinco 7.62 x 39mm semiautomatic rifle with a magazine containing 31 rounds. Reed was indicted by a federal grand jury for being a felon in possession of a firearm. On March 26, 2008, Reed pled guilty to illegally possessing the Norinco rifle.
U.S. Attorney Gross commended the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Battle Creek Police Department for their work on the case. Their joint investigation and the resulting federal prosecution of Reed was undertaken as part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative, a program initiated by the federal government to prosecute repeat violentoffenders who possess guns.
This case was prosecuted on behalf of the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Phillip J. Green and Christopher M. O’Connor, who were assisted at sentencing by law clerk Stephanie Tuttle.
END
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