'Stash guns' give Staten Island hoodlums quick access to firearms (NY)
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Bruce Jackson
Sep 28, 2012, 9:44:17 AM9/28/12
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http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/09/stash_guns_give_staten_island.html
http://tinyurl.com/d7bdgav
'Stash guns' give Staten Island hoodlums quick access to firearms
Published: Sunday, September 23, 2012, 6:02 AM
By John M. Annese/Staten Island Advance
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- When Damark King shot out the left eye of a
toddler in Mariners Harbor last year, he didn't initially have a gun
on him -- but he knew where to find one.
That gun, it turned out, was what law enforcement officials here refer
to as a "community gun" or a "stash gun" -- one of several firearms
stashed away in easy-to-access locations, like a trunk of an abandoned
car, or a mailbox, or a garbage can.
"Somebody yelled, 'go get the gat.' And everybody knew where it was,"
said District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
Authorities believe the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics has fueled the
"stash gun" trend -- criminals expect to be searched, so they're more
likely to hide the guns nearby to avoid being caught with a weapon.
Donovan has been waging a steady war on illegal guns like the one that
put out the eye of 22-month-old Samyah Bailey last September -- his
office won't consider a plea deal on a gun possession suspect until it
gets an answer about the gun's origin.
Those answers don't always bear fruit -- sometimes suspects will claim
that they found the gun somewhere, or bought it from a "crackhead" or
something similar, law enforcement sources said.
Still, traces run by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives offer some insight as to where criminal's guns are
coming from -- out of state, it turns out.
FEWER GUNS SEIZED
The number of guns seized on the Island by the NYPD has dropped in
recent years -- from 130 in 2009, to 111 in 2010 and 92 last year.
The Island has also seen a sharp decline in murders this year -- just
five so far, four of them from gunshots. By comparison the NYPD
recorded 14 killings on the Island in the same time period in 2011,
seven of them from gunshots.
But shooting incidents have risen -- 29 as of Sept. 9, compared to 21
in the same time frame last year.
In 2009 -- the most recent year the ATF broke down gun recoveries by
borough -- Staten Island accounted for 277 of the 5,135 firearms
recovered city-wide. That total includes multiple law enforcement
agencies, not just the 130 recovered by the NYPD.
The ATF ran traces on 2,685 of those guns, showing that roughly 15
percent, or 395, were originally bought in New York state.
The rest came from other states, mostly along the East Coast -- 349
from Virginia, 260 from Georgia, 256 from Pennsylvania, 225 from
Florida, 224 from South Carolina, 217 from North Carolina.
"We debrief everyone who's arrested with a gun," Donovan said in an
interview with the Advance. "My office debriefs them, and we can't
seem to find a pattern of gun trafficking to Staten Island. There
doesn't seem to be a lot of gun trafficking. Guns may be going through
here, but they're going somewhere else."
On Staten Island, guns are usually recovered during raids, searches
and car stops, and less often after a gunshot murder or a shooting
incident.
'COMMUNITY GUN'
And most of the time, a shooter is using a "community gun," Donovan said.
"A gun that's in a mailbox ... that everybody knows if you need it you
can use it and somebody can go and get it," he said. "It's garbage
pails. It's the trunk of the abandoned car. Everybody knows where it
is."
Well, everybody except police, the criminals hope.
Donovan's office has been working on an as-of-yet unannounced program
aimed at changing that.
The "community gun" phenomenon isn't well-known, but it's been
plaguing the borough's trouble spots since at least 2007, in an
incident similar to the Samyah Bailey shooting.
On Sept. 2, 2007, Justin Lloyd, then 16 years old, fished a gun out of
a trash can after getting an argument in the Mariners Harbor Houses
complex, then started shooting, striking a 4-year-old girl in the leg.
He then ditched the gun in a "grassy area" and ran off. Lloyd ended up
with an eight year prison sentence.
Two years later, on Sept. 19, 2009, police arrested three men in
Castleton Corners after finding two guns, one with the serial number
filed off, stashed in a trash receptacle outside their apartment on
the 700 block of Manor Road.
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http://tinyurl.com/d7bdgav
'Stash guns' give Staten Island hoodlums quick access to firearms
Published: Sunday, September 23, 2012, 6:02 AM
By John M. Annese/Staten Island Advance
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- When Damark King shot out the left eye of a
toddler in Mariners Harbor last year, he didn't initially have a gun
on him -- but he knew where to find one.
That gun, it turned out, was what law enforcement officials here refer
to as a "community gun" or a "stash gun" -- one of several firearms
stashed away in easy-to-access locations, like a trunk of an abandoned
car, or a mailbox, or a garbage can.
"Somebody yelled, 'go get the gat.' And everybody knew where it was,"
said District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
Authorities believe the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics has fueled the
"stash gun" trend -- criminals expect to be searched, so they're more
likely to hide the guns nearby to avoid being caught with a weapon.
Donovan has been waging a steady war on illegal guns like the one that
put out the eye of 22-month-old Samyah Bailey last September -- his
office won't consider a plea deal on a gun possession suspect until it
gets an answer about the gun's origin.
Those answers don't always bear fruit -- sometimes suspects will claim
that they found the gun somewhere, or bought it from a "crackhead" or
something similar, law enforcement sources said.
Still, traces run by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives offer some insight as to where criminal's guns are
coming from -- out of state, it turns out.
FEWER GUNS SEIZED
The number of guns seized on the Island by the NYPD has dropped in
recent years -- from 130 in 2009, to 111 in 2010 and 92 last year.
The Island has also seen a sharp decline in murders this year -- just
five so far, four of them from gunshots. By comparison the NYPD
recorded 14 killings on the Island in the same time period in 2011,
seven of them from gunshots.
But shooting incidents have risen -- 29 as of Sept. 9, compared to 21
in the same time frame last year.
In 2009 -- the most recent year the ATF broke down gun recoveries by
borough -- Staten Island accounted for 277 of the 5,135 firearms
recovered city-wide. That total includes multiple law enforcement
agencies, not just the 130 recovered by the NYPD.
The ATF ran traces on 2,685 of those guns, showing that roughly 15
percent, or 395, were originally bought in New York state.
The rest came from other states, mostly along the East Coast -- 349
from Virginia, 260 from Georgia, 256 from Pennsylvania, 225 from
Florida, 224 from South Carolina, 217 from North Carolina.
"We debrief everyone who's arrested with a gun," Donovan said in an
interview with the Advance. "My office debriefs them, and we can't
seem to find a pattern of gun trafficking to Staten Island. There
doesn't seem to be a lot of gun trafficking. Guns may be going through
here, but they're going somewhere else."
On Staten Island, guns are usually recovered during raids, searches
and car stops, and less often after a gunshot murder or a shooting
incident.
'COMMUNITY GUN'
And most of the time, a shooter is using a "community gun," Donovan said.
"A gun that's in a mailbox ... that everybody knows if you need it you
can use it and somebody can go and get it," he said. "It's garbage
pails. It's the trunk of the abandoned car. Everybody knows where it
is."
Well, everybody except police, the criminals hope.
Donovan's office has been working on an as-of-yet unannounced program
aimed at changing that.
The "community gun" phenomenon isn't well-known, but it's been
plaguing the borough's trouble spots since at least 2007, in an
incident similar to the Samyah Bailey shooting.
On Sept. 2, 2007, Justin Lloyd, then 16 years old, fished a gun out of
a trash can after getting an argument in the Mariners Harbor Houses
complex, then started shooting, striking a 4-year-old girl in the leg.
He then ditched the gun in a "grassy area" and ran off. Lloyd ended up
with an eight year prison sentence.
Two years later, on Sept. 19, 2009, police arrested three men in
Castleton Corners after finding two guns, one with the serial number
filed off, stashed in a trash receptacle outside their apartment on
the 700 block of Manor Road.
--
Have you remembered to sign up for the VA-ALERT yet? If so,
are you enjoying it? If not, what are you waiting for? It's FREE!
just click
http://www.vcdl.org/va-alert.html
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