David Wright, Jr., Assault Rifle Possession, Iowa 2021

A 23-year-old Waterloo man has been sentenced to more than 13 years in federal prison for being in possession of an assault rifle.

David Wright, Jr., was sentenced to 151 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to two counts of being a felon in possession of firearms on June 10, 2021.

The charges stem from an incident in which Wright and another individual were following an unmarked police car in Waterloo. A marked police car attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but the driver refused to stop and fled from police at high rates of speed. Once the vehicle stopped, Wright fled on foot. Police later located an AR-15 rifle that was fully loaded with a round in the chamber on the seat where Wright was seated.

The AR-15 rifle had previously been stolen, and Wright was also found to be in possession of a .45 caliber handgun just a month prior to the incident. At the time, he was serving a term of federal supervised release, having previously been convicted for illegally possessing firearms as a drug user.

Wright was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams, who also imposed an additional 12-month sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release.

The case was brought as part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative, which aims to reduce violent crime by focusing enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partnering with locally based prevention and reentry programs.

Wright is currently being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lisa C. Williams and was investigated by a Federal Task Force composed of the Waterloo Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, assisted by the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office and Cedar Falls Police Department.

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