Federal Jury Convicts Duluth Felon for Illegal Possession of a Firearm
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A federal jury convicted a Duluth man for possessing a firearm as a felon, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Charles J. Kovats.
Following a five-day trial before Senior U.S. District Judge Donovan W. Frank, Edell Jackson, 41, was found guilty of a single count of possessing a firearm as an armed career criminal. A sentencing date will be scheduled at a later time.
According to the evidence presented at trial, on January 14, 2021, officers with the Brooklyn Center Police Department were dispatched to a call of shots fired. Officers spoke to a woman who said Jackson shot at her during an argument and was still armed. The woman assisted officers in locating Jackson, who was sitting in a parking lot in the driver’s seat of a Chevrolet Avalanche. When law enforcement tried to apprehend Jackson, he reversed his vehicle and attempted to drive away but was blocked by police squad cars. Jackson exited his vehicle and fled on foot. As he ran, Jackson took his jacket off and discarded it in a snowbank near his vehicle. Officers pursued him on foot and eventually apprehended Jackson. Officers searched Jackson’s discarded jacket and found inside a zipped pocket a Bersa model Thunder 9mm semi-automatic pistol.
Because Jackson has multiple prior felony convictions in St. Louis County, Cook County (Illinois), and Will County (Illinois), he is prohibited under federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition at any time.
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 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Brooklyn Center Police Department, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, and the Minneapolis Police Department.
The case was tried by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas Calhoun-Lopez and Angela M. Munoz.
