A 26-year-old Pittsburgh man who ditched a stolen, defaced handgun during a foot chase in 2024 and was later caught with a second stolen pistol and crack cocaine at a Knoxville convenience store has been sentenced to 37 months in federal prison. Aquay Mitchell was sentenced Thursday in federal court after being convicted of unlawfully possessing firearms and ammunition as a convicted felon, a crime barred under federal law because of his multiple prior felony convictions.
A federal judge handed down the sentence on September 10, following a prosecution led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan T. Conway, according to the Department of Justice. Judge Hornak presides over the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, according to court records from the U.S. District Court. As WPXI reported, the case stems from an encounter between Mitchell and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.
A Chase, a Stairwell, and a Stolen Gun
Prosecutors say the saga began in September 2024, when Pittsburgh officers tried to stop Mitchell because they believed he was carrying a gun. Mitchell ran from officers and was ultimately found hiding in a stairwell, per WPXI's account of the case. During that encounter, detectives recovered Mitchell's keys, his cell phone, and a loaded semi-automatic pistol with an obliterated serial number that had been reported stolen along his flight path, the DOJ's press release notes.
The DOJ release describes the pistol as having an obliterated serial number.
Second Gun, Drugs Surface at Knoxville Arrest
The case resurfaced roughly a year and a half later. On February 4, 2026, Pittsburgh police officers on proactive patrol spotted Mitchell at a convenience store in the Knoxville neighborhood and arrested him on a federal warrant tied to the 2024 incident, for which he had since been indicted. A search after his arrest turned up a second stolen semi-automatic pistol, 11 grams of crack cocaine in a knotted plastic baggie, a digital scale, and a cell phone, the DOJ said in its announcement.
Knoxville was the neighborhood of the arrest. Federal prosecutors subsequently opened a civil forfeiture proceeding on February 11, 2026, targeting the iPhone seized from Mitchell during that arrest, according to records reviewed by PacerMonitor.
Federal Penalties and a Joint Investigation
Mitchell received a 37-month sentence in the federal case.
U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti, who announced the sentence, commended the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. The case was handled in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Mitchell's case was prosecuted federally.
Case Fits Into a Broader Drop in Pittsburgh Violence
The prosecution lands against a backdrop of falling violent crime in the city. Homicides in Pittsburgh dropped to a 35-year low in 2025, with 35 recorded killings, down from 42 in 2024 and 71 in 2022, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The homicide decline forms part of the backdrop to the prosecution.
