The United States Attorney Jan Sharp announced that 29-year-old Lonnie L. Perry, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced today in federal court. 

He was sentenced for two counts of interference with interstate commerce by way of robbery, one count of brandishing a firearm, during and in relation to a crime of violence, and one count of discharging a firearm, during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Chief United States District Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. sentenced Perry to 274 months (22 years, 10 months) in federal prison. After completing his term of imprisonment, Perry will begin a 3-year term of supervised release. 

Perry was found guilty by a jury of the four charges following a trial in July of 2021. 

On October 25, 2017, Perry entered the Select Mart convenience store in Omaha and brandished a weapon at a store employee.  A father was shopping inside the store with his young son, and they hid in a backroom of the store until the police arrived at the scene.

On November 5, 2017, Perry entered the VP Racing Station convenience store in Omaha, brandished a weapon at two store employees and then fired his weapon into two vehicles fleeing the scene.  Each vehicle had a family with a child in it, and the bullet from the second shot landed next to the car seat of a two-year-old boy, nearly striking him.  The bullet landed on the driver’s seat floorboard of the first vehicle. 

On November 6, 2017, Omaha Police officers arrived at an apartment complex for a disturbance where Perry was identified brandishing a weapon.  While near a Runza restaurant, officers saw Perry drop a gun into a trash can.  Perry resisted arrest. He was transported to a hospital for treatment. Perry escaped custody in handcuffs and was arrested again later that same day.  The weapon was tied through ballistics to the shooting at the robbery the day before and had Perry’s DNA on it.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Great Plains Violent Crimes Task Force.