Man Sentenced to Nearly Six Years in Federal Prison for Illegally Possessing Gun During Civil Unrest in Chicago
CHICAGO — A man has been sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison for illegally possessing a loaded semiautomatic handgun during a period of civil unrest in Chicago in 2020.
RICKY GREEN, 28, of Chicago, illegally possessed the gun on the night of May 31, 2020, in the Lake View neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side. Green and other individuals attempted to break into a Target store in the 3300 block of North Ashland Avenue. When Chicago Police officers arrived at the scene, Green and the others fled in vehicles. After a brief chase on Lincoln Avenue, the vehicle in which Green was riding became disabled. Green ran off on foot and placed a bag containing the gun behind a broom and dustpan in a residential gangway. He then jumped a fence and tried to hide under the stairs of a residence in the 1300 block of West Wellington Avenue, but was apprehended by police officers, who then discovered the bag with the gun in it.
Green had previously been convicted in state court of multiple felonies, including a firearm offense, and was not legally allowed to possess the gun. He was on parole for his most recent felony conviction at the time of the federal offense.
A jury last year convicted Green on a federal charge of illegal firearm possession. U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah on Thursday imposed a prison sentence of five years and nine months.
The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Jeffrey L. Matthews, Acting 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 defendant made a calculated decision to carry the gun while committing another serious crime, attempted burglary,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Corey B. Rubenstein and Sushma Raju argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “He brought that gun into the chaos accompanying the pervasive looting and vandalism. The defendant’s deliberate decision to use the cover of that historic crisis to engage in his armed offense is particularly reprehensible.”
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.
