Chicago man gets federal prison sentence for carrying gun during last summer’s looting

A Chicago man was sentenced Friday to a year and a half in federal prison for carrying a gun during downtown looting last summer.

Javonte T. Williams, 28, dropped the gun from his waistband while officers chased him from the scene of looting early Aug. 10 near State and Lake streets, federal prosecutors said.

He was prohibited from carrying a firearm because of a previous gun conviction in Cook County.

Prosecutors, who asked for a two-year sentence, said Williams had boasted about the looting on social media.

“The defendant’s decision to be out in downtown Chicago in the middle of utter chaos is no mystery given his past public bragging about the amount of looting he himself participated in over the summer of 2020,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum.

When a friend cautioned Williams against posting to Facebook, Williams replied: “I’ll be rite back out f- - - em,” according to the memorandum.

Williams pleaded guilty earlier this year to illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

He was the second person sentenced in federal court this week for gun possession during the looting in downtown Chicago last summer. On Tuesday, Brandon Pegues of Riverdale got a year in federal prison for having a handgun and a hammer on the Near South Side on May 31.