Eugene Jonathan James, Felon in Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition, South Carolina 2017

Columbia, SC – In a shocking turn of events, Eugene Jonathan James, a 20-year-old man from Orangeburg, South Carolina, has pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. This charge stems from a violent incident in which James shot two police officers in May 2017.

Judge J. Michelle Childs accepted James’ guilty plea and will impose sentence after reviewing the presentence report prepared by the United States Probation Office. The maximum sentence for this crime is 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and 3 years of supervised release.

The incident began when officers from the Cayce Department of Public Safety were conducting a traffic stop on Knox Abbott Drive. James, who was driving a stolen car, led the officers on a high-speed chase across the Blossom Street Bridge into Columbia. When the officers approached James’ car, he fled on foot, disregarding their commands to stop. James eventually stopped in the woodline off the Riverwalk, where he appeared to be waiting for the officers.

One of the officers was shot in the chest and leg, while the other was shot in the leg. The officers returned fire and called for backup assistance. Responding officers found James in the woodline with a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson lying at his feet. James had also been shot. Further investigation revealed that the car James was driving had been stolen during a carjacking in Orangeburg on May 14, 2017.

The serial number of the firearm had been burned in an attempt to obliterate it, but law enforcement was able to restore the serial number and determined that it had been stolen during the theft of a car in Orangeburg on May 15, 2017. A ballistics examination of the firearm matched it to the fired bullet recovered from one of the officer’s bulletproof vest and to a May 16, 2017, shooting incident in Orangeburg.

James is prohibited under federal law from possessing firearms and ammunition based on an April 2017 Orangeburg conviction for burglary third degree, for which he received a probationary sentence. At the time of the instant offense, James was on state probation and out on state bond for an unrelated Richland County state charge stemming from a March 2017 incident.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the Cayce Department of Public Safety, the Columbia Police Department, and the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and was prosecuted as part of Project CeaseFire, a joint federal, state, and local initiative focused on aggressively prosecuting firearm cases in an effort to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer.

Assistant United States Attorney Stacey D. Haynes of the Columbia office handled the case.

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