ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A man from the Washington, D.C. area pleaded guilty today to possessing multiple firearms as a convicted felon and passing counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes.

According to court documents, Kevin Bushrod, 31, purchased two AR-15 semiautomatic rifles in June from an individual who was unaware that Bushrod had previously been convicted of numerous felony offenses. Bushrod used an alias during the transaction, which occurred in Alexandria, and paid for the firearms using, in part, counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes.

Less than one week later, on June 14, the Leesburg Police Department conducted a traffic stop of Bushrod’s Mercedes Benz vehicle in Leesburg. Bushrod fled in his vehicle while an officer was speaking on the phone with Bushrod’s federal Probation Officer. While being pursued by law enforcement, Bushrod began driving in an aggressive and dangerous manner, and his reckless driving forced other vehicles to take evasive actions to keep from being struck. Bushrod then jumped out of his vehicle without turning it off and continued to flee on foot, to include scaling a fence and falling 25 to 30 feet into a wooded area. Bushrod was finally apprehended near an abandoned outbuilding deep within the wooded area, where law enforcement officers and a K-9 established a security perimeter.

Following a court-authorized search of Bushrod’s Mercedes Benz vehicle, law enforcement located a Smith & Wesson AR-15 semiautomatic rifle that Bushrod previously purchased with counterfeit currency, and a loaded FNX-9 9mm semiautomatic pistol. Bushrod’s vehicle also contained, among other items, a stash of counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes, additional ammunition, a knife, multiple baggies containing suspected cocaine, digital scales, and five cell phones.

Bushrod faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the counterfeit currency charge and 10 years in prison on the firearms charge when sentenced on Jan. 25, 2019. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of a renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Colonel Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Fairfax County Chief of Police, Gregory C. Brown, Chief of Leesburg Police, Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Brian J. Ebert, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema accepted the plea. Significant investigative assistance was provided by the FBI’s Washington Field Office’s Safe Streets/HIDTA Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh is prosecuting the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information is located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:18-cr-395.