FirstAlerts
Crime & Courts

Felon Sentenced to 37 Months in Federal Prison for Illegal Firearm Possession

Cordell Simms, 32, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced on Sept. 4, 2026, to 37 months in prison for carrying a loaded semiautomatic pistol while on supervised release.

2 reports on this incident · first at Sep 4, 2026, 6:20 p.m. ET

By AI ReporterWritten Sep 4, 2026, 6:22 p.m. ET
Developing · checked 27h ago

This case is not concluded. The Justice Department announces the cases it brings and the ones it wins; it does not issue a release when a jury acquits or a judge dismisses. A charge reported here may since have been resolved in the defendant's favour without any further announcement.

We last searched for new coverage of this at Sep 4, 2026, 6:39 p.m. ET — checked 27h ago.

WASHINGTON – Cordell Simms, 32, a convicted felon residing in the District of Columbia, was on Sept. 4, 2026, to 37 months in prison for carrying a loaded semiautomatic pistol in a backpack while he was serving a period of supervised release and prohibited from possessing a firearm, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. Simms pleaded guilty Oct. 23, 2025, before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. In addition to the 37-month sentence, Judge Sullivan ordered Simms to serve three years of supervised release. According to court documents, on Sept. 10, 2025, about 4:45 p.m., a Metropolitan Police officer responded to a report of a person with a gun in their waistband near 2nd and Farragut Streets NW. The officer observed a man with a backpack – later identified as Simms. Simms spotted the police officer and handed his backpack to a minor child. The child began walking toward a nearby home. The officer intercepted the child and told her to drop the backpack. Simms ran and led police on a lengthy foot chase. Police caught and detained Simms and inspected the backpack. Inside the bag police recovered a Ruger SR40, .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun with an obliterated serial number that was fitted with a laser sight. The Ruger was loaded with one round in the chamber and 11 rounds in the magazine. Simms did not have a license to carry a firearm in the District. A history check revealed he had been convicted of attempted assault with a dangerous weapon, had been to 18 months in prison, and was therefore prohibited from possessing a firearm of any sort. At the time of his arrest in this case, Simms also was on supervised release following convictions of simple assault, second degree theft, and two counts of contempt. This case was investigated by the MPD with valuable assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – Washington Field Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney George Eliopoulos of the Violent Crime and Narcotics Trafficking Section.

Earlier reports

  1. Sep 4, 2026, 6:20 p.m. ETFirst report

    Felon Sentenced to 37 Months for Illegal Firearm Possession

    WASHINGTON – Cordell Simms, 32, a convicted felon residing in the District of Columbia, was sentenced on Sept. 4, 2026, to 37 months in prison for carrying a loaded semiautomatic pistol in a backpack while he was serving a period of supervised release and prohibited from possessing a firearm, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. Simms pleaded guilty Oct. 23, 2025, before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. In addition to the 37-month sentence, Judge Sullivan ordered Simms to serve three years of supervised release.

    According to court documents, on Sept. 10, 2025, about 4:45 p.m. a Metropolitan Police officer responded to a report of a person with a gun in their waistband near 2nd and Farragut Streets NW. The officer observed a man with a backpack – later identified as Simms. Simms spotted the police officer and handed his backpack to a minor child. The officer intercepted the child and told her to drop the backpack. Simms ran and led police on a lengthy foot chase. Police caught and detained Simms and inspected the backpack. Inside the bag police recovered a Ruger SR40, .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun with an obliterated serial number that was fitted with a laser sight. The Ruger was loaded with one round in the chamber and 11 rounds in the magazine. Simms did not have a license to carry a firearm in the District.

    A criminal history check revealed he had been convicted of attempted assault with a dangerous weapon, had been sentenced to 18 months in prison, and was therefore prohibited from possessing a firearm of any sort. At the time of his arrest in this case, Simms also was on supervised release following convictions of simple assault, second degree theft, and two counts of contempt. This case was investigated by the MPD with valuable assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – Washington Field Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney George Eliopoulos of the Violent Crime and Narcotics Trafficking Section.

Was this report accurate and useful?

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 14 Sept 2026, 22:22current

    First published.

  2. Version 14 Sept 2026, 22:20current

    First published.

How we work

This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.

Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.

Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.

None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.