The gun used to kill Chicago police Officer Ella French during a traffic stop Saturday was bought in a sham purchase by an Indiana man on behalf of another man, who was in the car French and her partner pulled over before they were shot, federal prosecutors allege.
Jamel Danzy now faces charges of conspiring to violate federal firearms laws. A bond hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
French was killed and her partner was critically wounded over the weekend after the traffic stop in West Englewood. Chicago police have two men in custody connected to the shooting, one of whom was arrested in possession of a Glock semi-automatic pistol, authorities said. Charges against those two suspects have not yet been announced.
But shortly after the shooting, investigators traced both the gun and the car to Danzy, a restaurant worker in northwest Indiana, according to the complaint.
Records showed that Danzy bought the gun in March from a licensed dealer in Hammond, where he claimed to be buying the weapon for himself, according to the complaint.
ATF agents on Sunday tracked down Danzy at the restaurant where he works, and he agreed to be interviewed on tape in an agent’s car in the parking lot.
Agents showed him the paperwork from the dealer, and at first, he claimed to have bought the gun for himself, the complaint states. But “after further questioning,” he admitted he instead had bought it for someone in Chicago, Individual A, who had a felony record and could not buy a gun for himself.
Danzy told officials that he and Individual A have been in a relationship for about three years, according to the complaint. Individual A gave Danzy money and told him exactly the type of gun he wanted Danzy to purchase for him, the complaint states.
Individual A went to Indiana to pick up the gun shortly after Danzy purchased it, according to the complaint.
And months later, on Saturday night, Individual A was taken into custody after the traffic stop where French was killed and her partner wounded. According to the federal complaint, he was arrested with the gun Danzy had purchased for him.
This wasn’t the first time federal authorities have alleged that a straw-purchased gun was used to kill a Chicago police officer.
In 2010, a 27-year-old Quawi Gates was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after, authorities say, he trafficked a gun that was used in the fatal shooting of Officer Thomas Wortham IV outside his parents home in the South Side’s Chatham neighborhood.
Gates pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting another cause a federal firearms dealer to keep false records in a gun trafficking scheme that resulted in the illegal transportation of the weapons from Mississippi to Chicago, authorities have said.
They alleged he paid various amounts for the guns, then compensated his straw purchasers $50 to $100 for their trouble. He instructed them to report the guns stolen as a way to avoid the law, authorities have said.
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
jgorner@chicagotribune.com
