HAMMOND- Samuel Strickland, 37, of South Bend, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.
Strickland was sentenced to 21 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release.
According to documents in the case, on April 7, 2019, officers responded to a shots fired call in Hammond and recovered a loaded 9mm firearm from Strickland. His criminal history revealed he had been previously convicted of aggravated battery with great bodily harm.
This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Hammond Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. Nozick.
This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.