PHILADELPHIA, PA — A Philadelphia man pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from a 2025 gunpoint carjacking and a subsequent assault on two federal correctional officers, exposing him to a mandatory minimum of seven years and a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.
Basir Blow, 26, entered the pleas before U.S. District Judge Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro in two federal cases, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 21.
In the carjacking case, Blow pleaded guilty to carjacking and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence.
Court filings indicate Blow pistol-whipped a victim with a loaded handgun in West Philadelphia on April 3, 2025, and took the victim’s 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Philadelphia police located a Jeep matching the vehicle’s description shortly after the victim called 911, according to prosecutors. Blow attempted to evade officers at high speed before crashing into a pole at Girard and Lancaster avenues, about 2½ miles from the carjacking scene, court records show.
Blow was detained at the Federal Detention Center Philadelphia while the carjacking case was pending.
In the second case, Blow admitted assaulting two correctional officers with a dangerous weapon and causing bodily injury. He also pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited object intended for use as a weapon, possessing a contraband cellphone and destroying the phone to obstruct a federal investigation.
According to court filings, an officer conducting cell checks on March 24 observed Blow and his cellmate using the phone. Both refused an order to surrender it, and Blow’s cellmate blocked the officer from reaching Blow, surveillance footage showed.
Prosecutors stated that Blow broke the phone before entering a common area, where he repeatedly punched the pursuing officer and took the officer’s pepper spray. Blow then sprayed that officer and a second responding officer in the face before additional personnel subdued him, according to surveillance footage described in court filings.
Blow faces a maximum possible sentence of life imprisonment, including a mandatory minimum of seven years, and five years of supervised release in the carjacking case. The detention-center charges carry a maximum possible sentence of 66 years and three years of supervised release.
The Philadelphia Police Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the carjacking case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan A. Farley is prosecuting.
The FBI investigated the detention-center case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Fischer is prosecuting it.
Support the local news that supports Chester County. MyChesCo delivers reliable, fact-based reporting and essential community resources—free for everyone. If you value that, click here to become a patron today.