Update October 1, 2020 — Federal prosecutors dropped the case against Johnnie Lee without explanation on September 3, 2020, according to court records.
A convicted felon is facing federal charges after he was found carrying a gun and violating the city’s mandatory curfew Sunday night in Lakeview, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago said Wednesday.
Johnnie L. Lee, 32, is charged with one federal count of illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, authorities said.
Chicago police saw a passenger in Lee’s car drinking from a brown liquor bottle near the intersection of Belmont and Southport around 10:40 p.m. Sunday, FBI agent Dustin Gourley said in an affidavit.
When officers approached Lee’s car, he sped through the intersection and crashed into another CPD vehicle, Gourley wrote.
Police who removed Lee from the car said they found a .38-caliber handgun on the driver’s side floorboard. Lee allegedly told officers that he had carried the gun for two days for protection.
According to the federal complaint, Lee was convicted of multiple narcotics-related felonies between 2007 and 2011.
Federal authorities opted to charge Lee as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Guardian and Project Safe Neighborhoods initiatives, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago said. The programs focus on investigating, prosecuting, and preventing gun crimes.
Lee faces a sentence of up to ten years if convicted.