By Vernon Clark
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia task force has announced that 19 more people had been charged with illegally transferring or possessing handguns.
The new cases include 15 arrests and arrest warrants issued for four others between April 15 and May 6, officials of the Philadelphia Gun Violence Task Force said.
These cases bring the total number of arrests to 165 since the task force was formed in December 2006, officials said.
The task force is composed of special investigators and veteran prosecutors from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, working closely with Philadelphia police. It has opened nearly 600 investigations and seized more than 250 firearms since the task force was formed, officials said.
In one case, Marvelous Richardson, 22, of the 2200 block of North Fifth Street, is accused of making a straw purchase and providing a 9mm handgun to Rahman Jenkins. A week after obtaining the weapon, Jenkins, 30, of the city’s Logan section, was shot to death by police on March 21, 2007, after he allegedly pointed the gun at a police officer after a traffic stop in North Philadelphia, officials said.
A straw purchaser is someone who legally buys a gun and transfers the weapon to a convicted felon or someone who would be prohibited from possessing a firearm.
In another case, Hameed Williams, 21, of the 6000 block of Irving Street in West Philadelphia, is accused of illegally providing a handgun to his juvenile brother, who carried the firearm to his school.
Copyright 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer