Department of Justice

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – An East St. Louis man will spend 5 years in prison for shooting a gun into the air at a child’s birthday party. Marco B. Orr, 32, has been sentenced to 63 months in federal prison. Orr pled guilty in April to one count of unlawful firearm possession by a convicted felon. According to court records and evidence presented at his sentencing hearing, the crime occurred on May 2, 2020, when Orr was in possession of an AR-15 style rifle at a child’s birthday party in East St. Louis. Orr was seen on surveillance camera discharging the rifle into the air numerous times. East St. Louis police later recovered the rifle inside a vehicle. It was loaded with 17 rounds of ammunition in a high capacity magazine. Orr was prohibited from possessing a gun due to a prior felony conviction for aggravated battery involving the use of a firearm.

As part of his sentence, Orr was also ordered to serve a 3-year term of supervised release.

The case was investigated by the East St. Louis Police Department and the United States Marshals Service Great Lakes Regional Task Force, with support from ATF and the Illinois State Police.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandria Burns prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), 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.