Dubuque Man Who Attempted to Discharge a Firearm at a Police Officer Sentenced to Over a Decade in Federal Prison

A man who assaulted a police officer by attempting to discharge a firearm was sentenced on May 6, 2025, to more than twelve years in federal prison.

Kentrell Vantrice Powell, age 29, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after a November 20, 2024 guilty plea to possession of a firearm by a felon.

Information from a plea agreement and a sentencing hearing showed that, on August 22, 2024, Dubuque police officers encountered Powell at a gas station. Powell was intoxicated and had shoplifted bottles of liquor from the gas station that were returned by one of his associates before officers arrived. Powell walked away from officers as they approached him despite repeated commands to stop, and he resisted arrest. While officers searched him, Powell kept reaching his hands into his back pockets, and the officers repeatedly told him to stop. When he reached his hands into his back pocket again, an officer heard a sound consistent with the action of a firearm. The officer looked down and saw Powell was holding a small derringer-size pistol, and the pistol was pointed at the officer. Subsequent examination of the pistol showed that a round of ammunition inside the pistol had a strike mark consistent with the round having misfired. The pistol also had an obliterated serial number.

Powell was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Powell was sentenced to 150 months' imprisonment. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Powell is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

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 gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Dubuque Police Department.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 24-CR-1030.

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