A federal grand jury has indicted Hector Gomez, a Mexican citizen residing in Chicago, on charges of illegal firearm possession. The indictment alleges that Gomez, previously convicted of a felony and removed from the United States multiple times between 2008 and 2015, illegally possessed a loaded handgun in Chicago last November.
According to the indictment, on November 8, 2025, Gomez brandished a firearm at a victim. Later that day, Chicago Police officers found him with a handgun while he was seated in the driver’s seat of a Jeep Wrangler parked in the Little Village neighborhood. Earlier that same day, at least two rounds were fired from the same gun near U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents who were performing official duties about two blocks away from where Gomez was later found.
Gomez faces one count each of illegal possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon and illegal possession by a foreign national without legal status in the United States. He is currently being held without bond pending arraignment scheduled for January 12, 2026 before U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly.
The announcement came from Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Christopher Amon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. The Chicago Police Department assisted in the investigation.
" Holding illegal firearm possessors accountable through federal prosecution is a centerpiece of Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction strategy," according to officials. "In the Northern District of Illinois, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and law enforcement partners have deployed the PSN program to attack a broad range of violent crime issues facing the District, particularly firearm offenses."
Authorities reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt: "The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." Each charge carries up to ten years in federal prison if convicted.
