MACON, Ga. — A Macon man was sentenced to seven years in prison for walking into the Walmart on Harrison Road and "aggressively" waving a gun at customers, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia.
Selma Oliver-Smith, 45, was convicted on April 11 for illegally possessing a firearm as a felon in a two-day trial. He received his sentence on Monday.
"Selma Oliver-Smith's arrest, conviction and sentencing shows that the justice system will not tolerate dangerous career criminals using a firearm to menace innocent shoppers in a busy Walmart," Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said.
On August 17, 2021, Oliver-Smith walked into the Walmart and waved his gun at people who approached him inside the store.
But this was not the first time Oliver-Smith had been in trouble with the law. He had previous convictions for burglary, theft and second-degree criminal damage, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in their press release.
While he left the Walmart, his previous encounters with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office meant that the deputies already knew him, and they could track him down to a motel near the Walmart.
There, authorities found two guns hidden in the toilet bowl tank and one of the guns, a Jennings Firearms Bryco .380, looked like the gun used at the Walmart, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Middle District of Georgia.
After serving his seven-year sentence, Oliver-Smith will have three years of supervised release.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.