U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Thursday sentenced a felon caught with a stolen gun to 102 (8 years, 6 months) months in prison.
Euron Jennings, 45, of Pagedale, pleaded guilty in May to one count of possession of a stolen firearm. He admitted that on June 19, 2022, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers tried to pull over a Jeep with expired temporary license tags at Kingshighway Boulevard and Cote Brilliante Avenue. The driver failed to pull over and continued to drive slowly as Jennings threw a firearm out of the window and onto the street. The Jeep then stopped and Jennings ran away. He was caught, then broke free and ran again before being arrested with the aid of a Taser.
Jennings, who has an extensive criminal history that includes three separate convictions for crimes of violence, had discarded a stolen Hermann Weihrauch HW 7 .22-caliber revolver.
More than 1 million firearms were stolen from private citizens between 2017 and 2021, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Stolen firearms represent the main source of guns recovered at crime scenes.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Christian Goeke prosecuted the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
