Macon man sentenced to seven years in prison after waving gun at Walmart customers in 2021

A judge sentenced a Macon man who waved a gun at customers in a Walmart in 2021 to seven years in prison Monday, officials said.

Selma Oliver-Smith, 45, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tilman E. Self III after he was found guilty of illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the Middle District Court of Georgia in April, according to a press release from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office.

Oliver-Smith apparently walked into the Walmart on Harrison Road in Macon in August of 2021 and waved a gun at people that approached him, court evidence showed. Officers received a call and located Oliver-Smith at a nearby motel, where they found two guns hidden inside the toilet bowl tank, according to the press release.

One of the guns inside the toilet bowl tanks was identical to the gun in a photo provided by Walmart.

“Selma Oliver-Smith’s arrest, conviction and sentencing shows that the justice system will not tolerate dangerous career criminals using a firearm to menace innocent shoppers in a busy Walmart,” Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said in the press release.

Oliver-Smith had been convicted of felony charges including burglary, theft by taking and criminal damage prior to toting the gun into the superstore in 2021, making it illegal for him to have a firearm.

“We are thankful that no shots were fired, and no one was hurt when Selma Oliver-Smith — a convicted felon — brandished a firearm inside a Macon store, terrifying customers and employees,” U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary said in the press release. “The penalty is steep for convicted felons who illegally carry guns.”

The seven-year sentence for Oliver-Smith will be followed by three years of supervised release, the attorney’s office statement said.