An Iowa man was sentenced Thursday to 384 months in federal prison after a jury convicted him of charges related to firearms straw purchasing and illegally possessing firearms and a machinegun.
According to public court documents and evidence presented at trial and sentencing, believing that a group of people contained a rival gang member, Dontavius Rashawn Sharkey, 27, Des Moines, and a member of the C-Block gang, open-fired into a crowd of people attending a baby shower at a Des Moines apartment complex.
Three teens were struck by Sharkey’s bullets, causing serious injuries to each. All three survived. As noted in the government’s sentencing memorandum, “[h]is motive, that a rival gang member happened to be in that crowd, was unconscionable.”
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Following the shooting, Sharkey, a convicted felon, recruited an individual to illegally purchase him multiple firearms from various gun stores in the Des Moines area. One of those firearms was recovered by law enforcement on November 2, 2022, during a search warrant at Sharkey’s Des Moines residence. During that search warrant, Sharkey ran from police with this loaded firearm, which he had converted to a machinegun with an auto-switch. Sharkey was captured by an ATF K-9.