The continuing investigation into an exchange of gunfire between two groups of young people Monday afternoon in the area of South 6th and Sylvan Streets (no one hit) led to Tuesday night’s arrest of five teenagers and the recovery of seven pistols. Two of the pistols were stolen from vehicles, one this year, the other in 2022. Another of the guns was equipped with a switch that made it fully automatic.
Undercover detectives from the Specialized Investigations Division were conducting surveillance Tuesday night when they saw several teens engaged in a dice game behind an apartment near Summer Place and South 6th Street. Several of them were believed to have been present during Monday afternoon’s gunfire. The five (two 17-year-olds, one 16-year-old, and two 15-year-olds) were taken into custody after foot pursuits. Six handguns were recovered. Charges against the five teens include, for now, gambling, evading arrest, unlawful gun possession, and marijuana possession.
A review of area surveillance footage after the arrest of the teens showed that an adult who had been at the dice game fled as detectives began arriving. As he was running between buildings on Sylvan Street, he fell and dropped a pistol. Just before police arrived back in the area to recover that gun, a seven-year-old child found it laying in the grass and took it inside an apartment. It was a fully loaded .40-caliber semi-automatic. The seven-year-old showed detectives where the gun was in the apartment and it was successfully recovered.
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Recovered guns
Recovered guns