Drugs and guns earn Pierce County man a lengthy sentence in federal prison
A Pierce County man was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in Seattle for repeated drug-trafficking crimes and illegally possessing firearms.
Ryan James Townsend, 46, was sentenced to seven years in prison. U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik also ordered four years of supervised release, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.
Police investigated Townsend in November 2022 after he fired multiple shots into the air outside a Planet Fitness gym on East 72nd Street in Tacoma. Witnesses and surveillance video showed Townsend in a white Cadillac Escalade firing the weapon, the release said.
Officers later found Townsend passed out behind the wheel of a car parked outside a gas station. A 9 mm handgun was found in the car, the release said. Due to prior convictions, Townsend is prohibited from possessing firearms.
Nine months after the shooting, a Puyallup police officer tried to stop Townsend because he was driving in a different car without license plates. Townsend drove off, hitting another vehicle and damaging it. The driver of that vehicle was injured, the release said.
Townsend tried to run away from police after he crashed. Police found methamphetamine and a handgun in the car’s glove box. Fentanyl pills, heroin and three firearms were also seized from Townsend’s home by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, the release said.
Townsend pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm in June 2024, the release said. Prosecutors and the defense recommended Townsend be sentenced to 84 months in prison.
“On a number of occasions Mr. Townsend continued to possess firearms knowing he was not allowed to. On one occasion Mr. Townsend was observed shooting a gun into the air putting civilians in danger. Following the arrest for this conduct, Mr. Townsend did not stop his criminal behavior,” assistant U.S. attorney Casey Conzatti wrote to the court. “Less than a year later, Mr. Townsend was found with a second firearm, and this time he had drugs with him.”
