Man gets 8 years for pointing gun at ATF agent on Far South Side

A man is facing eight years in prison for pointing a gun at an undercover federal agent after a robbery last year in the South Deering neighborhood on the Far South Side.

Nicholas Hermon, 24, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty in August to counts of assaulting a federal and brandishing a firearm during a violent crime, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Hermon was part of a robbery on Dec. 19, 2017 aimed at a buyer and an undercover source for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seeking to illegally buy an assault rifle near the 10100 block of South Oglesby Avenue, prosecutors said.

Hermon hid nearby while his partner, Joshua Gentry, 22, took $1,800 from the source in exchange for the weapon, prosecutors said. When the sale concluded, Hermon popped out and pointed a gun at the source.

ATF agents who were surveilling nearby showed up and tried to apprehend Hermon and Gentry, prosecutors said. The two fled to a yard, where Hermon turned and pointed a gun at an agent. He was later arrested.

“The defendant’s firearm was loaded with 15 rounds of ammunition with one round in the chamber ready to be fired,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Parente argued in the sentencing memorandum.

Gentry pleaded guilty to robbing government funds and using a firearm during a violent crime, according to the state’s attorney office. He was sentenced last week to seven years in prison.