2 Indicted On Gun Trafficking Charges In New York City
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced Thursday the arrest and indictments of two men accused of trafficking firearms in the Bronx and East Harlem.
Bronx resident Javon Burgess, 36, and 24-year-old Paul Lee, of Brooklyn are accused of selling the illegal weapons in broad daylight, WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported.
The pair was brazen enough to allegedly sell the guns in the parking lot of a McDonald's, near the entrance to the Bronx Zoo, and on the blocks alongside Co-op City, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.
"A lot of times its in a bag, a brown paper bag, a duffle bag. Sometimes on the person," inspector John Burke said as he described how under cover detectives posed as buyers and seized 39 guns in the transactions.
District Attorney Vance said the sellers didn't discriminate when it came to selling the weapons.
"And the market sadly for many of these illegal guns is kids," the district attorney said.
One of the guns had been used just two weeks prior in the shooting of a 17-year-old, Papa reported.
Inspector Burke said New Yorkers are fed up and are speaking up.
"We were informed by members of the community. That's what led us to both subjects," Burke said.
Bratton said the arrests show a continuation of former Mayor Bloomberg's effort to keep guns from the South off of city streets.
"That effort is going to continue unabated and if possible even increase as we go forward," the police commissioner said.
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