FEDS CHARGE SOLDIERS WITH FUNNELING FIREARMS TO CHICAGO
Mass shooting on S.W. Side sparked probe that led to 3 men
An investigation following a mass shooting on the Southwest Side led to three U.S. Army soldiers being charged in federal court in allegedly supplying “dozens” of firearms to the streets of Chicago.
The soldiers, Demarcus Adams, 21, Jarius Brunson, 22, and Brandon Miller, 22, are all stationed at Fort Campbell in Clarksville, Tennessee. The three were arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiracy and offenses relating to the alleged illegal purchase and transfer of dozens of firearms to the streets of Chicago, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
The investigation began after a man was killed and seven others were injured when gunfire broke out at a “pop-up party” just after midnight March 26 in the Wrightwood neighborhood on the Southwest Side. Multiple firearms were recovered from the scene and traced back to licensed firearms dealers in the Clarksville, Tennessee, area. The U.S. Attorney’s office alleges that Adams, Brunson and Miller were the “majority purchasers” of the guns.
The three have purchased 91 firearms from Federal Licensed Firearms dealers in Tennessee and Kentucky since September 2019 — most within the past five months, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. Once the firearms were purchased, Miller allegedly would provide them to people in Chicago, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Forty-nine empty firearm cases were recovered during a federal search warrant at the home of Miller and Adams on April 29. “Many” of the cases matched firearms recovered by the Chicago Police Department at recent shootings and homicides, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Each soldier was charged with transferring a firearm to an out-of-state resident, making false statements during the purchase of a firearm, engaging in the business without a firearms license, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit Title 18 offenses.
If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison.