A Clayton County man who used a stolen identity to buy dozens of guns from licensed dealers around metro Atlanta despite a long criminal history has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, officials said.
Dawuan Na’jee Williams, 40, of Jonesboro, pleaded guilty in February to one count of presenting false identification to a federally licensed firearms dealer, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Ryan Buchanan said. Williams is also facing multiple charges in Florida related to a shooting that took place in Tallahassee, including attempted murder and aggravated assault.
“Because he’s a felon several times over, Williams could not lawfully possess or purchase firearms,” Buchanan said. “He then skirted federal law by utilizing stolen identification information to purchase firearms and will spend the next decade in federal prison.”
Williams bought more than two dozen guns from different dealers around the metro area between May 2020 and June 2021, Buchanan said. Some of those guns have been linked to shootings and other crime scenes.
According to Buchanan, a loaded pistol purchased by Williams was found at a crime scene in Newark, New Jersey, in May 2021. Williams bought the gun in Georgia eight days before it was recovered by New Jersey authorities.
In July 2021, police in Tallahassee were investigating a shooting and found a pistol that had been purchased by Williams several weeks prior, Buchanan said.
Later that month, agents with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) raided Williams’ home and seized multiple guns. An analysis of the guns using the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) linked one of them to shell casings recovered from the scene of the Tallahassee shooting, Buchanan said. The investigation led to the pending charges against Williams in Florida.
Williams’ previous felony convictions include home invasion, robbery, kidnapping, aggravated battery, drug trafficking and others, according to Buchanan. He used a single stolen identity to purchase all of the guns he acquired during his buying spree, which lasted more than a year.
“ATF is deliberate and calculated in our approach to stem violent gun crimes from devastating our neighborhoods, while exploiting investigative leads derived from the NIBIN, connecting crime guns to crime scenes and leveraging our expertise to support investigations across multiple jurisdictions,” said Jeffrey Matthews, a special agent with ATF’s Newark field division.
Williams was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release, Buchanan said. There is no parole in the federal prison system.
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