Hattiesburg Man Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison for Hobbs Act Robbery

The Gulfport Police Department, Drug Enforcement Agency, and United States Attorney’s Office announce today’s arrest of 23-year-old, Cody Jerome Cooley, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for unlawfully obstructing, delaying, and affecting commerce by using actual force or violence to steal a firearm.

Cooley was sentenced to 84 months imprisonment.

On November 6, 2021, Cooley entered Academy Sports and Outdoors and asked an employee to look at a Springfield Arms firearm. While looking at the Springfield Arms firearm Cooley asked the employee to see a Glock firearm. When the employee reached down to retrieve the Glock firearm, Cooley struck the employee in the face with the Springfield Arms firearm and fled the store with the stolen firearm. Cooley was apprehended by armed civilians until the Gulfport Police arrived.

Gulfport Police Deputy Chief Craig Petersen stated, “The Gulfport Police Department is committed to reducing gun violence in our city. Because of the partnerships with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, we successfully took a violent individual off the streets who could have participated in callous acts with a stolen firearm in our community. Continued efforts such as the Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative are essential in making Gulfport a safer place to live and work.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Gulfport Police Department investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Buckner prosecuted the case.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally-based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime