By Christine McConville
The Boston Globe
BOSTON, Mass. — Boston police are investigating the theft of a department-issued .40-caliber Glock firearm from an officer whose fiancée’s son stole the weapon and sold it to another teenager.
“We don’t know who has it now,” Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said yesterday.
The gun has been sold at least twice since it was stolen nearly two weeks ago. According to police, on July 15, an officer who works in the department’s Mattapan Station told his supervisors that his handgun had been stolen from a locked safe in his home.
The officer, a member of the force since April 2006, told police the 13-year-old son of his fiancée admitted to stealing the gun and selling it to Daniel Esdale, 17, of Hyde Park, according to a police report.
Police obtained a warrant for Esdale’s arrest and arrested him on Leslie Street in Dorchester on July 16, a day after the theft was reported.
But by that time, Esdale had resold the gun, Driscoll said. He did not tell police who bought it, she said. “The officers are being vigilant and making every necessary effort to find this firearm.
“We will punish anyone who has participated in this,” she added.
Esdale has been charged with receiving stolen property, unlawfully carrying a firearm, and the unlawful possession of ammunition, said Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney.
He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and is due in court for a pretrial hearing today, Wark said.
Driscoll said police plan to file criminal charges against the 13-year-old, but did not say what those charges might be.
The officer whose gun was stolen is still working. He has been issued another firearm, but can only carry it while on duty, Driscoll said.
The department’s Internal Affairs Division is investigating the case, but at this point, the department believes the officer followed proper departmental steps, Driscoll said.
“He came forward right away, and our preliminary information shows that he followed all the correct procedures,” she said.
Kenneth Anderson, a lawyer who represents members of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, said the officer “is entirely blameless in this unfortunate incident.”
Driscoll said the department does not have any reports of the firearm being used since it was stolen.
Copyright The Boston Globe 2007