A Waterloo man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for his involvement in a gang-related shooting that took place in August 2022. Anthony Kyle O’Donnell, 37, pleaded guilty on November 18, 2024, to possession of a firearm by a felon and was sentenced on August 19, 2025.
According to court records, four individuals dressed in black fired thirty-four rounds at a residence occupied by eight people, including a two-year-old child. After the shooting, police located two men dressed in black about five blocks away from the scene and found three firearms in a nearby shed. O’Donnell was found one block from the firearms, also wearing all black and sweating.
Police recovered thirty-four shell casings at the site. Bullets entered both the living room and a bedroom of the house. Four occupants were injured by broken glass and one person suffered a bullet graze.
DNA analysis linked O’Donnell to one of the recovered firearms—a stolen Beretta pistol—from which ten rounds had been fired. Authorities identified the incident as gang-related due to connections between several victims and suspects.
United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams handed down the sentence of 180 months’ imprisonment and ordered O’Donnell to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. There is no parole available in the federal system.
“This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.”
O’Donnell remains held by U.S. Marshals pending transfer to federal prison.
The investigation involved multiple agencies including the Waterloo Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, Cedar Falls Police Department, as well as prosecution by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist.
