For about a week in the summer of 2022, Joshuia Johnathon Luke Brown seemed to go viral on the internet, his face and name spreading across law enforcement and news media websites, and reposted on social media.
He and another man had fired a spray of bullets from automatic handguns at an FBI agent, in a Columbus neighborhood where one round hit a house, and federal authorities wanted him captured fast. They put out his picture and offered a $25,000 reward for tips on his whereabouts, before he surrendered Aug. 10 , that year.
This week the 26-year-old identified as a member of the street gang US World was sentenced to prison for a myriad of offenses, chief among them forcible assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon.
U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land gave him more than 26 years.
The feds said agents had Brown and Jarvis Smith under surveillance for drug trafficking July 28, 2022, when they saw the pair make a drug deal on Winston Road. The pair drove to Wade Street and turned on Sheridan Avenue, where Smith stopped in the road as he and Brown jumped out and opened fire on an FBI agent’s car.