Detroit Man Sentenced to Over 7 years in Prison For Two-Day Crime Spree

DETROIT -A Detroit man was sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison yesterday for stealing nearly 50 firearms from a gun store in Dearborn Heights, United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison announced.

Ison was joined in the announcement by James Deir, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF).

Deon Bell, 29, was sentenced to 90 months' imprisonment, which will run consecutive to a 102-month sentence imposed on Bell in a separate armed robbery case involving a T-Mobile store.

According to court documents, for the first burglary, Bell recruited three young men, one of whom was a juvenile, to help him steal guns from a licensed gun store in Dearborn Heights. The group stole a car, crashed it into the front of the store, and stole 22 weapons. Bell did it again the next night, this time recruiting two other juveniles to join his crime spree. The group again stole a car, crashed it into the front of the gun store, and stole 25 more weapons. After this second robbery, Bell led police officers on a high-speed chase, putting all on the road at risk. Several of the stolen guns were recovered by law enforcement in other investigations, but many are still unaccounted for.

This was the most recent conviction for Bell, who has a long criminal history including drug trafficking, carrying a concealed weapon, criminal sexual conduct 3^rd degree, and armed robbery.

"Stealing cars, crashing them into gun stores to rob them, and putting nearly 50 stolen guns on the street endangered our community in so many ways," U.S. Attorney Ison said. "Worse still is the fact that Bell recruited juveniles to commit these crimes with him. Deon Bell's repeated, reckless violent conduct has no place in our community."

"Deon Bell is a menace to our community's safety. He concocted a burglary scheme to funnel illegal weapons into our community. Furthermore, Mr. Bell cowardly recruited and manipulated juveniles in our community to further perpetrate his criminal acts putting our community's safety at risk. Burglaries of federal firearms licensees continue to be one of ATF's top priorities," said Detroit Field Division Special Agent in Charge James Deir Simply put: "Greed is bad. There is no place in our community for illegal firearms traffickers whose personal greed to make a quick buck leads them to burglarize firearm dealers in our community. They will be held accountable."

This case was investigated by agents from ATF, but started with Dearborn Heights Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erin Ramamurthy, Meghan Bean, and Hank Moon.