Chi-Ali Bunn, Illegal Firearm Possession, North Carolina 2023

A former Rocky Mount man was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison for possessing a short-barreled rifle that did not have a serial number.

Chi-Ali Bunn, 29, of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was sentenced on September 26, 2023 for the charge of possessing a firearm with an altered or removed serial number.

Bunn was arrested in January 2023 after he approached a Nash County Sheriff's Office license check station and then fled, leading to a high-speed chase that reached speeds of up to 111 miles per hour.

During the pursuit, Bunn's vehicle ran multiple stop signs, traveled on the wrong side of the road, weaved in and out of traffic, and narrowly avoided colliding with other motorists, including a law enforcement vehicle.

Deputies with the Wake County Sheriff's Office successfully deployed stop sticks, which flattened two tires of Bunn's vehicle. Inside the car, deputies found a loaded 9mm handgun capable of accepting a large capacity magazine, a .223 caliber rifle with a barrel length of 7.5 inches, a loaded drum magazine, a pill bottle containing eight Oxycodone pills, a cut straw containing cocaine residue, and a digital scale.

U.S. Attorney Michael Easley praised the collaboration between law enforcement agencies and said that Bunn's actions were 'no place around a child, especially in a car traveling at speeds over a hundred miles an hour.'

The case was investigated by the Nash and Wake County Sheriff's Offices, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Phil Aubart prosecuting the case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/rocky-mount-man-sentenced-illegal-firearm-possession-after-high-speed-chase-child-and