Peoria man sentenced to federal prison for possession of a machine gun 

A Peoria man, 20-year-old Tajurie Amir Bennett was sentenced on Thursday to 41 months in federal prison for possession of a machinegun.

The government established in court that in February of this year, Bennett, along with another person, committed a drive-by shooting of a residence located on West Gift Avenue in Peoria.

A ShotSpotter gun detection system alert identified 15 rounds of fully automatic gunfire.

Police responded and located gunfire damage on the front of a house and on a gas utility line of a separate residence nearby, as well as bullet holes on a car on the adjacent street.

Peoria Police found the suspect vehicle and attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a  vehicle, then occupied only by Bennett.

But Bennett fled from marked squad cars, driving at times into oncoming traffic at a high rate of speed.

When police did stop Bennett, they located a 9mm “ghost gun” on the floorboard.

The pistol was loaded and equipped with a high-capacity extended ammunition magazine that was further equipped with an auto-sear, commonly referred to as a “switch”.
The switch enabled the pistol to fire as a fully automatic machinegun.
Bennett entered a guilty plea with no plea agreement in June 2023.
The statutory penalties for possession of a machinegun are up to 10 years’ imprisonment, to be followed by up to three years of supervised release..

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