A Michigan man pleaded guilty to kidnapping a manager of a sporting goods store at gunpoint last year and then making off with more than 100 handguns, federal authorities said Tuesday.
Darnell Bishop, 33, of Benton Harbor, also pleaded guilty to brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan.
An attorney listed for Bishop in court records was not immediately reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
“My office is laser focused on those few individuals driving gun violence in our communities, including active shooters and gun traffickers,” U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said in the statement. “Darnell Bishop’s brazen crimes, if successful, would have flooded the streets of Benton Harbor and beyond with illegal firearms. I’m grateful to our law enforcement partners for their swift investigative work that put a stop to this criminal scheme.”
Bishop and his codefendant, Dontrell Nance, who is Bishop’s brother, were charged in the theft of 123 handguns from a Benton Harbor Dunham’s Sports store.
The guns were worth more than $100,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
In his plea agreement, Bishop admitted that on Nov. 16, 2023, he and Nance kidnapped the manager from outside the manager’s home at gunpoint, handcuffed and blindfolded him, then took him to another location and forced him to provide the alarm code for the store, prosecutors said.
Bishop then went to the Dunham’s and stole 123 pistols, which he carried away in two large coolers, prosecutors said.
Investigators searched the residences and vehicles for both suspects the next day and found the stolen firearms, prosecutors said.
Bishop and Nance were arrested that day, according to prosecutors. Investigators identified one of the suspects after he tried to transfer money from the manager’s bank account with a cash app, prosecutors said.
Nance has previously pleaded guilty to the same charges to which Bishop pleaded guilty. Nance is scheduled to be sentenced on July 22.
Federal authorities did not specify when Bishop will be sentenced.
