Derrick Long, 30, of Cincinnati, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Saturday, November 7, to illegally possessing ammunition as a previously convicted felon — the federal charge arising from the mass shooting inside the Riverfront Live music venue in March, in which nine people were wounded. The plea was entered before Senior U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett in the Southern District of Ohio, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Ohio (DOJ)

"The plea today holds Long accountable for his part in the mass shooting at Riverfront Live in Cincinnati," U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II said in the announcement. "My Office is dedicated to pursuing federal charges against those who wreak havoc on our communities through acts of violence. We will continue to charge and prosecute these cases to completion."

What happened at Riverfront Live on March 1

According to court documents, Cincinnati police officers responded at about 1 a.m. on March 1, 2026, to a report of a shooting inside Riverfront Live, the nightclub and event venue at 4343 Kellogg Avenue on the Ohio River in Cincinnati's East End. Nine people were wounded in the gunfire. No deaths were reported.

Investigators identified two shooters from the venue's surveillance footage. According to the federal criminal complaint filed in March, Franeek Cobb, 24, saw Long inside the venue, pulled out a firearm and began firing at him. Long fell to the ground, then brandished a firearm and fired back toward Cobb and into the crowd, discharging at least eight rounds of ammunition, the Justice Department said.

Ballistics work backed up the two-shooter account. Officers recovered 12 cartridge casings inside the venue — four 9mm casings and eight .45-caliber casings from the area where Long was on the ground — and examination through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) showed that only two firearms were discharged during the shooting, according to the complaint and prosecutors.

A long record, and the federal charge

Federal law, under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), bars anyone convicted of a felony from possessing a firearm or ammunition. Prosecutors said Long's record made any ammunition possession illegal on its own: his prior felony convictions include two separate cases involving trafficking in heroin, trafficking in fentanyl, failure to comply, carrying concealed weapons, arson and receiving stolen property. Possessing a firearm or ammunition as a previously convicted felon is punishable by up to 15 years in federal prison.

The case against the second identified shooter is not over. Cobb is charged federally with illegally possessing a firearm as a previously convicted felon, and those charges remain pending, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The charge against Cobb is an allegation, and he is presumed innocent unless and until he is convicted. Both men also faced state felonious-assault charges in Hamilton County after their arrests in March, according to reporting at the time.

The guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Gerace; Jorge Rosendo, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Cincinnati Interim Police Chief Adam Henni; and Jason Cromartie, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Cincinnati Division. Members of the ATF and the Cincinnati Police Department's Crime Gun Intelligence Center took part in the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley N. Brucato is prosecuting the case.

Riverfront Live, a venue that admits patrons aged 16 and up, sits along the Ohio River not far from the Riverbend Music Center, and the March shooting — nine wounded inside a crowded club — became one of Cincinnati's most serious gun-violence cases of the year. Saturday's plea closes the federal case against one of the two accused shooters, eight months after the night itself.