A 32-year-old Brooklyn Center man pleading guilty yesterday to illegal firearms charges following last summer's crackdown on street gangs in the Twin Cities.
James Hollman is one of 14 alleged gang members who were rounded up on various charges connected to what federal prosecutors called a "brutal and unrelenting trail of violence over the course of years."
Some of those incidents included a 2020 shootout and murder at a northside Minneapolis club, and the murder outside of a pub in Uptown in 2022.
Last August, United States Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Luger announced an additional 14 gang members have been charged in federal court after an even larger crackdown in May.
The arrests included what were described as “two high ranking” members of the Lows gang. Members of the Highs, Bloods and 10z/20z gangs were also arrested last summer.
Hollman's sentencing date has not yet been set. Hollman pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm as a felon and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.
According to court documents, in March 2023, investigators with the Minneapolis Police Department received information that James Edward Hollman, Jr., who at the time was on supervised release for a prior felon-in-possession conviction, carried a firearm while conducting narcotics transactions inside rental vehicles with out-of-state license plates.
On March 15, 2023, officers went to Hollman’s apartment complex in Brooklyn Center to execute search warrants on Hollman’s person, rental vehicle, and apartment unit. When officers observed Hollman enter his rental vehicle parked at his apartment complex, they moved in and detained Hollman.
Officers recovered a loaded Glock pistol with an obliterated serial number, an inserted high-capacity magazine, and an attached red laser pointer, a knotted plastic baggie containing 252 blue round “M-30” fentanyl pills, and Hollman’s driver’s license from the vehicle’s center console. Officers also recovered a loaded 50-round drum magazine from the front-passenger seat’s rear map pocket.