FAYETTEVILLE, Ark — An armed "career criminal" was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Austin Wenger, 26, of Fayetteville, was sentenced Friday (May 8) to 262 months in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release for one count of being a Felon In Possession of a Firearm.
According to court records, on September 6, 2019, detectives with the Fayetteville Police Department were attempting to locate and arrest Austin on a warrant related to a shooting he was involved in on September 5, 2019.
Fayetteville police said Austin fired at a vehicle Thursday (Sept. 5) night after an argument at the Bedford Loop Apartments. He struck the vehicle two times before driving off.
The next morning police learned Wenger was at an apartment at the Greens at Lakeside Village, where he barricaded himself inside with his wife, Megan Wenger, and three children, according to the arrest affidavit.
Police said Austin refused direct requests to surrender or release the children, who did not belong to him.
Investigators spent hours attempting to negotiate with Austin to release the children from inside the residence but were unsuccessful. Eventually, the three children were released from a back window.
Wenger posted videos to social media bragging about the shooting, showed off a gun, threatened police officers, and referred to him and his wife being like Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who garnered international fame for a string of bank robberies and murders in the 1930s.
He subsequently discharged on at least two occasions from inside the apartment. One projectile from the gun nearly struck a uniformed police officer stationed outside the home.
During the standoff, Emergency Response Team members used multiple gas canisters and had to breach the door to force his surrender, which eventually took place around 3:40 p.m. Subsequent to his arrest, a search warrant was executed and the firearm Austin possessed and discharged was located. In addition, investigators located 6 spent shell casings of .40 caliber inside the residence.
Austin has been previously convicted of multiple felonies in state court and is therefore prohibited from possessing firearms. Under federal law, he is considered an Armed Career Criminal and subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of at least 15 years because he has three prior convictions for violent felony offenses.
Austin was sentenced in 2014 to 12 years in prison for shooting at his pregnant girlfriend.
Austin was indicted by a federal grand jury in November of 2019 and entered a guilty plea in February of 2020.
This case was prosecuted as a part of the Department of Justice's Project Safe Neighborhoods Initiative, which is aimed at reducing gun and gang violence, deterring illegal possession of firearms and improving the safety of residents in the Western District of Arkansas. Participants in the initiative include federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
This case was investigated by the Fayetteville Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney David Harris prosecuted the case for the United States.
