BY MARK FAZLOLLAH & JOHN SHIFFMAN INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS Hundreds of guns seized by Upper Darby police are back in circulation, many after police supplied them to two of the region’s most notorious gun shops, The Inquirer has learned.
These guns included illegal sawed-off shotguns and assault rifles. Just last month, special-education students found one of Upper Darby’s confiscated guns as they collected litter near their school.
One of the dealers who sold Upper Darby’s weapons is now in prison for selling guns to felons. “I don’t care if you kill a cop,” he told an undercover federal agent wearing a wire.
The second shop owner lost his license after authorities linked guns he sold to 19 Philadelphia homicides, including the killing of a police officer.
Upper Darby suspended the practice in 2005, shortly after federal agents raided one gun shop and quickly traced a sawed-off shotgun to the Police Department.
INQUIRER: Killing & Maiming Is Our Business And Business Is GOOD!
RELATED: At least three people are dead, and two are in the hospital. The fatalities brought to at least 156 the number of people who had been murdered in Philadelphia by the 141st day of the year.
UPDATE: Police said Ford, a student at FitzSimons High School, was shot five times. He died at Temple University Hospital about 11:30 a.m. Ford’s brother Michael Lawry was gunned down last September, just steps from where Ford was killed yesterday, Ford’s girlfriend said. Ford was one of six people slain in the city over the weekend. Another man, who had been shot May 10, died Saturday, helping to push the homicide total this year to 159. [via DAILY NEWS]