Department of Justice

MINNEAPOLIS – A Michigan man was sentenced today to 84 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for possessing a firearm as a felon after he and two others were involved in a deadly shootout in downtown Minneapolis.

According to court documents, in September 2019, Marvin Lavell-Caine Lomax, 25, of Detroit, Michigan, and his associate engaged in a shootout during the early evening commute hours at the Hawthorne Bus Terminal in downtown Minneapolis. Surveillance video showed bystanders fleeing the area as Lomax and his associate exchanged gunfire with a third person. The third person was shot multiple times and later died as a result of his injuries. Lomax and his associate fled the area, threw their guns into a trash bin, and boarded a commuter bus back to Detroit.

Hours after the shooting, the firearms, a loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and a loaded .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol, were found in the trash bin by Minneapolis police officers. Both firearms had previously been reported stolen. Ballistics analysis linked the discarded shell casings found at the scene to the two recovered firearms. Additionally, Lomax’s DNA matched the DNA found on one of the .45-caliber shell casings recovered at the scene. Investigators searched Lomax’s social media accounts and found a video of him talking and laughing with his associate about the shooting incident.

In December 2019, Lomax was indicted by a federal grand jury and on June 3, 2021, Lomax pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm as a felon.

Acting U.S. Attorney W. Anders Folk for the District of Minnesota made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz sentenced the defendant.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

This case was the result of an investigation conducted by the Minneapolis Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Bejar.