Aaron Height was sentenced on April 23 to twenty-five years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm after a series of violent crimes, including shooting an unarmed man in the chest. United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. announced the sentence, which follows a six-week crime spree by Height between late 2022 and early 2023.
The case is significant because it highlights ongoing concerns about repeat offenders and the impact of bond decisions on community safety. According to court records, Height’s actions included multiple shootings into homes—one incident resulted in a resident being shot in the head—and an attack that left another victim with life-threatening injuries.
Authorities said Height began his offenses by shooting into a home in October 2022, injuring someone inside. He returned two months later and fired at the same house twice more before being arrested during a traffic stop where police found a firearm. Despite these events, he was granted bond with house arrest but violated it by threatening a witness. After another release on bond, Height assaulted another man over an argument about shoes, struck him with a liquor bottle, poured cleaner into his wound, forced him and an eyewitness to their knees at gunpoint, then shot the victim and fled.
Height has prior convictions dating back to 1998 for felonious assault, arson, unarmed robbery, property-related crimes, and drug offenses.
“The failure to keep vicious criminals off the street has led to notorious murders in Charlotte and Chicago. The same failure happened here,” Gorgon said. “This defendant spent decades committing crimes and hurting people and a state court still set this menace free to terrorize us. But thanks to the hard work of Detroit Police, the ATF, and my office, this man will spend the next 25 years in a federal prison.”
James Deir of ATF Detroit Field Division said: “Height is a poster child for ATF’s mission… With today’s sentence, the message is clear: Shooters beware – ATF and its partners are coming for you with one-way tickets on the accountability train destined for an extended stay in Federal prison.”
The investigation involved cooperation among several agencies including ATF Detroit Field Division, Detroit Police Department, and Detroit Fire Department.
