A St. Louis man who threw a water bottle at a passing car outside his apartment complex in March ended up locked in a gun battle with the driver moments later — and on Tuesday, he learned he'll spend close to a decade behind bars for it. Shan Mims, 39, was sentenced to 115 months in federal prison for shooting and wounding a man during the March 17, 2026 confrontation.
U.S. District Judge Cristian M. Stevens handed down the sentence, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Eastern District of Missouri. Police say the trouble started when Mims threw a water bottle at a car as it drove past his apartment complex, then walked toward the vehicle with one hand concealed inside his jacket, as reported by First Alert 4.
That's when things turned violent. The victim pulled out a handgun, and Mims drew his own weapon, according to the station — the two then fired at one another outside the complex. Surveillance footage captured the confrontation, and investigators say Mims ran along a sidewalk after wounding the victim before returning into view of the camera and aiming his gun toward the man again from behind a tree, at which point the victim fired one more shot at Mims before driving away in his vehicle.
A Stolen Gun and a Prior Felony
In July, Mims admitted to using a stolen .380-caliber handgun to carry out the shooting, per the same account from the station. He had a prior felony conviction and was on federal supervised release at the time of the March confrontation — the result of a 2022 case in which he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to being a felon in possession of a firearm and to possessing a controlled substance with intent to distribute. He received a 46-month prison sentence for those earlier offenses.
Nine days after the shooting, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers executed a court-authorized search of Mims's bedroom and discovered the firearm along with cocaine base, the station's report notes. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department led the investigation into the shooting, and Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Christian Goeke prosecuted the case.
Nearly a Decade Behind Bars
The 115-month federal sentence announced this week marks the resolution of a case that began with a seemingly minor roadside altercation and ended with a man wounded by gunfire. The Eastern District of Missouri's statement confirms the length of the prison term, though it does not detail the court's reasoning or any additional conditions attached to the sentence.
