For Immediate Release

December 13, 2002

FEDERAL CONVICTION FOR MAN INVOLVED IN
AUGUST 9, 2002, COPELAND AVENUE SHOOTING

Madison, Wisconsin -- J.B. Van Hollen, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced today that Ritchie Cleveland McWilliams, of Rockford, Illinois, DOB 8/25/74, pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Madison to the unlawful possession of firearms as a convicted felon.

The prosecutor proffered the following facts at the guilty plea. On August 9, 2002, Beloit Police responded to citizens' reports of shots fired in Beloit's Copeland Avenue neighborhood. When police officers responded to the shots-fired call, citizen witnesses came forward and told police they had seen a gun-carrying man throw his shirt on the roof of the old pool hall at 1501 Park Avenue.

Officers found McWilliams, shirtless with a bullet wound in his leg, near the pool hall. Police recovered two 9mm pistols near the pool hall and another 9mm pistol in the car in which McWilliams had been riding. McWilliams previously had been convicted of a felony offense in 1994.

United States District Judge John C. Shabaz scheduled sentencing for February 21, 2003, at 1:15 p.m. McWilliams faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a three-year period of supervised release and a $100 criminal assessment fee.

The charges against McWilliams were the result of an investigation conducted by the City of Beloit Police Department and Special Agent Jason Salerno of the Madison office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant United States Attorney Rita M. Rumbelow.

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