DUBUQUE, IA – A New Year’s Day celebration in Dubuque turned violent, and the man allegedly involved is now facing federal time. Katwan Montez Brown, 27, pled guilty August 25, 2020, to being a felon and domestic abuser in possession of a firearm, according to a release from the Department of Justice.
The incident unfolded in the early morning hours of January 1, 2020. Evidence presented in a prior hearing details a street argument escalating when Brown handed a pistol to another individual. Moments later, that person opened fire from the doorway of a home, striking one victim. Brown, rather than remaining at the scene, fled to a nearby alley before returning shortly after. Dubuque Police Department officers recovered the weapon in that same alley, along with a cell phone and identification belonging to Brown. Forensic analysis confirmed Brown’s fingerprints were on the pistol’s magazine.
This wasn’t Brown’s first brush with the law. Records show a concerning pattern of criminal activity. In 2013, he was convicted of felony forgery and felony possession with intent to distribute marijuana. He further compounded his record with a 2018 conviction for felony possession of contraband while incarcerated. Adding to this, Brown has two prior domestic abuse convictions: domestic abuse assault with strangulation and domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury (2015), and a subsequent domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury conviction in 2017.
The investigation was a joint effort between the Dubuque Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Assistant United States Attorney Dan Chatham is prosecuting the case. Brown remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. He now faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and 3 years of supervised release following any period of incarceration.
Federal authorities emphasize that this case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a violent crime reduction strategy focusing on the most dangerous offenders, and Project Guardian, the Department of Justice’s initiative to reduce gun violence and enforce federal firearms laws. Both initiatives prioritize coordinated efforts between federal, state, and local law enforcement to dismantle violent crime networks and get guns out of the hands of those prohibited from possessing them.
Court file information can be found at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 20-CR‑1013‑CJW‑MAR. Follow the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa on Twitter: @USAO_NDIA.
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Key Facts
- State: Iowa
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Weapons|Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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