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Kevin Hills, 21, had been seen on surveillance video shooting what turned out to be a 9mm Jiminez semiautomatic pistol after he got out of a sedan on Chadwick Avenue near Clinton Avenue last June, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Officers in the area found the gun after one of them reported hearing the shots, he said.
A warranted search of the Lincoln LS that Hills had gotten out of turned up 64 rounds of various ammunition, according to a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark.
Exactly a month later, a detective investigating the shooting saw and stopped the dreadlocked ex-con, who was known to police.
Hills, who recently served prison time for an aggravated assault on a corrections officer, was carrying a 9mm Ruger with an “obliterated” serial number in his waistband, Sellinger said.
It was loaded with 11 rounds of ammo, the U.S. attorney said.
Federal authorities took the case based on interstate commerce: The gun had been manufactured in Nevada and the ammo in Illinois and Idaho, they explained.
Hills has remained in federal custody since then.
Sellinger credited Newark police and members of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office with the investigation leading to the charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Trombly of his Cybercrime Unit in Newark is handling the case for the government.
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