CHICAGO — Nearly five years after she was caught with a firearm near a freshly looted store in downtown Chicago during the George Floyd riots, a woman has been given a 366-day federal prison sentence. Amber Petzer, 32, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, bringing an end to the case that began when CPD officers arrested her in the South Loop on May 31, 2020.
Riots and looting were ripping the city apart, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot had implemented a 9 p.m. curfew as authorities tried to regain some semblance of control.
Officers patrolling downtown saw Peltzer standing outside a looted business near State and 16th Street around 12:35 a.m., officials said. Prosecutors said the cops thought she was trying to break into the store and alleged that she had “more than $5,000 worth of stolen jewelry with tags on it at the time of her arrest.” But her attorney disputed that, saying the jewelry was inside a car she had occupied, and there was no proof that it had been stolen.
Either way, there is no longer any dispute that Peltzer had a 9-millimeter pistol. State prosecutors quickly filed charges against her, and the feds took on the case within a month. They charged her with being a felon in possession of a firearm, a charge based on the fact that she was convicted of aggravated robbery in Will County in 2014 and received a five-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors asked Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer to sentence Peltzer to 70 months in prison. However, Peltzer’s attorney strongly opposed this, recommending five years of probation with no prison time.
The lawyer pointed out that Peltzer had been on bail for more than four years without any problems. In a memorandum to the judge, the attorney wrote that Peltzer “has been able to straighten out her life.”
He described horrible, violent experiences that Peltzer suffered earlier in her life, atrocities that continue to affect her to this day. Yet, since being arrested, she has “achieved sobriety, obtained employment, is addressing her mental health issues, and earning enough to send her son to a Catholic high school,” the lawyer’s memo said.
Pallmeyer ordered Peltzer to surrender to the U.S. Marshals Service by March 14 to begin her year-and-a-day sentence.
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