A Washington, D.C. man was sentenced to 7 years in prison after police spotted him in an Instagram livestream with a machine gun, the Justice Department announced.
A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Corey Whittico to 84 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release Monday for illegal possession of a gun and ammunition, the department said in a news release. He previously pleaded guilty in December to the charge.
Whittico cannot own a gun due to a previous felony conviction, stemming from a robbery in Maryland, the department said.
According to the Justice Department, Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police officers spotted Whittico broadcasting a livestream in 2023 of himself in the passenger seat of a moving car, holding a Glock gun outfitted with a machine gun conversion device.
The officers drove to an area Whittico is known to frequent while monitoring his livestream. They later arrested him and the driver.
D.C. police recognize Whittico on livestream
According to D.C. Superior Court records, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. dropped the charges in local court for federal prosecution. In the lower court’s records, four Metropolitan Police Officers were monitoring Instagram when they came across Whittico’s account. No information was listed in court documents indicating how the police knew Whittico owned the account.
Officers wrote in charging documents they saw on the video of Whittico flashing the modified gun in a moving car. Moments later, the officers recognized a “Welcome to Washington D.C.” sign. Two officers drove to a neighborhood they knew Whittico frequented and spotted a car similar to what they saw in the live video.
“The officers conducted a traffic stop on the 5800 block of East Capitol Street, SE,” according to the Justice Department. “As the driver of the Honda pulled over, the officers watched as the Honda’s occupants reached into the back passenger’s compartment and appeared to conceal an item under one of the seats.”
Police searched the backseat of the car and found more than 51 ounces of marijuana, which is above D.C.’s 2-ounce possession limit for personal use. They also recovered the machine gun Whittico flashed in the video, loaded with one round of ammunition in the chamber and 16 rounds loaded into a 22-round feeding device.
Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at knurse@USATODAY.com. Follow her on X @KrystalRNurse, and on BlueSky @krystalrnuse.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: He livestreamed himself with a machine gun. Now he’s going to prison.