The Gun Violence Task Force has recently arrested and charged 23 with gun trafficking and related offenses including two locally.
Darryl Byrd, 28, of the 2900 block of Morris Street, was charged with conspiracy, persons not to possess firearms, tampering with public records or information and unsworn falsification, according to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office. Byrd allegedly straw purchased seven handguns including three .40 caliber, two 9mm, one .45 caliber and on .357 caliber for a convicted felon. Police recovered the latter in connection to an aggravated assault.
Akiem Smith, 19, of the 1300 block of South Fourth Street, was charged with illegal transfer of firearms, persons not to possess firearms, tampering with public records or information, unsworn falsification, altering or obliterating marks of identification, firearms not to be carried without a license, carrying a firearm on a public street and conspiracy, according to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office.
Smith, who was too young to purchase a gun himself, allegedly tried to use a straw purchaser to get one for him. When that fell through, he asked his mother purchase a .45 caliber handgun for him. When agents recovered the gun, the serial number was unrecognizable.
Smith was since murdered on the 500 block of Pierce Street Monday.
Since the task force was created in December 2006, 472 arrests were made — 239 of which have been convicted thus far — and 847 firearms were seized in 1,445 investigations, according to a press release from the District Attorney’s Office.
“Every straw purchaser and gun trafficker that the Gun Violence Task Force apprehends and prosecutes is one less weapon, or more than one in many cases, that can be used to harm an innocent citizen of Philadelphia,” District Attorney Seth Williams said in a statement.
Passyunk Square residents are beginning to breathe easier after more than 80 dogs were rescued from a home on the 700 block of Earp Street last week.
A 19-year-old Pennsport man was gunned down inside a vehicle Monday night.
Gunfire erupted on the sidelines of a basketball game at a local rec center injuring a spectator.
A man was apprehended for a May Grays Ferry bar shooting more than two months after his target identified him from a photo array as a man he only knew as “Butter.”
A man left a trail of blood on a Point Breeze block, after he was caught in the gunfire last week.
Gunfire broke up a group of eight sitting outside striking one in the crowd in the backside Sunday night.
A manager and two other employees of a Pennsport burger joint were forced in the freezer after two armed robbers ran off with more than $2,000 last week.
A man was burglarized after he was robbed inside a Point Breeze bar last week.
A man was fixing a Point Breeze home when his nephew walked in and pointed a gun at him.
Police are trying to identify a man who pistol whipped an elderly employee of a West Passyunk tire store earlier this month.
A North Philly man allegedly threatened a Rite Aid employee with a box cutter after he was confronted for stole from the Passyunk Square store Sunday.
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1. Anonymous said... on Jul 26, 2010 at 01:15PM
“I didn't see ANY coverage of this huge story either in the Ink or DN. How can the two local papers not cover that there were gun trafficking arrests of 23 people in Philly? There was NO coverage that murder victim Akiem Smith's own MOM bought a gun for him. If you want the full story, you have to read this paper, because the other two are devoted to not covering the ugly truth.”