Source: United States Department of Justice News
CHICAGO — A federal judge has sentenced a man to more than four years in federal prison for illegally possessing a loaded handgun near a Chicago playground while on parole for a prior gun offense.
KEJUAN CARR, 26, of Chicago, illegally possessed the gun on March 22, 2021, inside Chicago’s Humboldt Park and directly across the street from a children’s playground. Chicago Police officers conducting remote surveillance observed Carr holding the firearm while standing among a group of people in the 1300 block of Luis Munoz Marin Drive. Officers arrested Carr as he left the park. The gun in his possession was loaded with 13 live rounds of ammunition.
Carr had previously been convicted of multiple felonies in state court and was prohibited by federal law from possessing a gun. He was on parole for a recent firearm conviction when he possessed the gun near the playground.
Carr pleaded guilty earlier this year to the federal charge of illegal possession of a firearm. U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood on Monday imposed a 51-month prison sentence.
The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Ashley T. Johnson, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI; and David Brown, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. Valuable assistance was provided by the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“There is a dangerous atmosphere of gun violence that pervades this city and this District,” Assistant U.S. Attorney James P. Durkin argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “But for the alert, swift, and professional actions of Chicago Police officers who observed the defendant possessing the gun on surveillance video and swiftly took him into custody, the defendant could have caused another all-too-common scene of senseless violence and tragedy.”
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.