Chicago man sentenced to 7 years for illegally possessing, brandishing loaded gun in public

CHICAGO - A 30-year-old man who illegally possessed a loaded gun on a Chicago street and tried to flee from police last year has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison.

Brandon Ellis, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to federal firearm charges earlier this year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Ellis was seen on Chicago Police Department surveillance video lifting his shirt to show the gun in his waistband to another person in August 2021, prosecutors said.

When officers confronted Ellis, he attempted to flee, prosecutors said. A semiautomatic pistol, which was previously reported stolen, was later recovered from Ellis' waistband by police.

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Ellis was convicted twice before of illegally possessing a firearm in the last five years. He was released from prison just four months prior to the most recent federal charges against him, prosecutors said.

"By carrying a gun as a convicted felon in a high-crime area, and then brandishing that gun, he affirmatively created a volatile and potentially deadly situation on a street filled with people," Assistant U.S. Attorney Vikas Didwania argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. "The law must make clear through the sentence this court imposes, that Ellis cannot break the rules with impunity, that this court will protect the public from him, and that he will be punished severely until he stops."

U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman imposed the 84-month prison sentence on Nov. 2.