A man who engaged in a gun battle in Cedar Rapids was sentenced on November 1, 2022, to more than eight years in federal prison.
Lamont Bailey, age 40, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after an April 11, 2022 guilty plea to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Surveillance videos introduced at the sentencing hearing showed that, on December 11, 2021, Bailey drove his car to a business on Kirkwood Court SW in Cedar Rapids and parked. Before he exited his car, Bailey tucked a pistol into his waistband. Bailey then went into the business. As Bailey exited the business, he took his pistol out of his pants and re-entered his car. Three individuals were walking through the parking lot behind Bailey’s car, but there was no altercation at that time. Bailey drove his car onto Kirkwood Court SW, but then abruptly stopped his car and parked it on the side of the road. Moments after Bailey parked his car, one of the three individuals who had been walking through the parking lot began shooting toward Bailey’s car. Bailey then stood up from the driver’s side of his car and fired two shots in the direction of the three individuals. He then re‑entered his car and drove away. The other individual continued shooting at Bailey’s car. Officers located Bailey later that night and found a 9mm pistol that was later determined to match two shell casings from the scene of the shootout. Bailey had been previously convicted of three drug felonies in Chicago, Illinois.
Bailey was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Bailey was sentenced to 100 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Bailey is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Lisa Williams and Dan Chatham and investigated by the Cedar Rapids Safe Streets Task Force. The task force is composed of representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cedar Rapids Police Department.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 22‑CR‑00019‑CJW‑MAR.
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