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Man with gun near Obama home gets five years in prison

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-11 15:00

CHICAGO: A 31-year-old man accused of carrying a handgun outside the South Side home of US President Barack Obama last year was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison, local media reported.

A file photo released Sept. 23, 2008 by the Chicago Police Department shows Omhari Sengstacke.[Agencies]

Omhari Sengstacke, grandson of former Chicago Defender publisher John Sengstacke, was convicted last month of two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, a Chicago Tribune report said.

Judge Nicholas Ford imposed the five-year sentence on Sengstacke during a hearing on a criminal court at Cook County in the southern side of Chicago on Friday. Sengstacke originally faced up to seven years in prison.

In September last year, Sengstacke was arrested after he repeatedly tried to pass security barriers near Obama's Kenwood neighborhood home on the southern side of Chicago, saying he wanted to talk to the then-US senator about a job. Police found a handgun and a bulletproof vest in Sengstacke's car, but authorities said he never made threatening statements toward Obama.