WASHINGTON (DC News Now) -- A D.C. man was charged with being a felon in illegal possession of a firearm, the U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) for the District of Columbia announced Friday.

The USAO said that 22-year-old Damion Barnett is accused of having a loaded semiautomatic pistol before Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers arrested him on July 14.

Charging documents state that MPD officers were patrolling around 6 p.m. and spotted a group of men standing on the 1100 block of 16th St. NE.

"One of the individuals, later identified as Barnett, was smoking a white cigarette that officers believed contained marijuana," the USAO said.

Officials say that as he saw the officers approach, Barnett passed the cigarette to someone else in the group and ran away down 16th Street. He ran

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