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Christopher Bey, 50, of Highland Park, who used a potato as a gun silencer when shooting and wounding a Pontiac store clerk during a robbery in 2023, was sentenced Thursday in federal court to 20 years in prison.
“This 20-year sentence is righteous," ATF Detroit Special Agent in Charge James Deir said in a statement. "Mr. Bey is a sociopathic serial shooter who has consistently shown an inability to follow societal rules. It most certainly sends a clear message: if you use a firearm to shoot an innocent member of our community, there is absolutely no limit to the resources ATF will expend to hunt you down and hold you accountable for your cowardly conduct."
According to authorities, Bey robbed a Boost Mobile store in Pontiac on Feb. 4, 2023. After entering the shop, he brandished a gun and demanded money from the employee. The employee fully complied. Still, Bey pulled a potato from his pants, affixed it to the barrel of the revolver as silencer, and shot the victim twice in the stomach. The victim was hospitalized for about a month.
He later told ATF that he got the idea about the potato from a movie.
The following month, he attempted to rob a Dollar General store in Pontiac. At gunpoint, he ordered the employee to the storeroom and told him to put on handcuffs.
In the middle of it all, a customer accidentally entered the storeroom and struggled with Bey, who then fled the store.
According to court records, during the robbery investigations, law enforcement observed social media posts of Bey holding a firearm while wearing a ski mask.
On July 26, 2023, investigators arrested him. He has been in custody since.
He pleaded guilty to interference with commerce by robbery, use of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, all relating to an armed robbery, shooting, and attempted armed robbery.
