Vipal Patel, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, has a message for people who own and use illegal guns: the feds are coming for you.
During a briefing Thursday, Patel announced that 16 people living in Cincinnati have been arrested and charged with federal gun crimes. Of those, 15 had been previously convicted of felonies. All arrestees are ages 22-48 years old.
People who have been convicted of felonies are not permitted to have firearms, the law states. Those recently arrested are charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and could see 10 years in federal prison.
“We are committed to getting guns out of the hands of people who have already been convicted of violent crimes and are prohibited under federal law from owning, possessing or controlling firearms,” Patel said.
Some arrested also face federal charges of trafficking fentanyl, heroin and cocaine, which could be worth up to 20 years in federal prison.
“The cases that we’re talking about today include instances of where shots were fired…including a defendant who tried to evade Cincinnati Police by speeding along a neighborhood street before crashing, and including even one defendant who’s facing state charges at the same time as part of a murder-for-hire plot,” Patel added.
Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent in Charge Alicia Jones joined Patel in the briefing, and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office and the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office have been working together, as well. The batch of arrests announced Thursday are the third wave of an ongoing collaboration to reduce Cincinnati’s gun violence.
“Since last September, more than 50 people now have found out the hard way that once you’ve been convicted of a felony or of certain misdemeanors and absent restoration of gun rights by the state, you are not allowed to own, possess, have, control a firearm of any type,” Patel said. “And not just firearms — body armor and even a bullet.”
Patel said that the goal is to try felons who possess illegal firearms in federal court.
“Why? Because where appropriate, the statutory penalties in federal court and the sentencing guidelines often are more severe than in state court,” Patel explained.
After previous federal arrests, local gun violence dropped significantly before climbing again, Patel said.
“There are many, many factors of causing increases and decreases in gun violence, and if there’s anything we’ve learned throughout the year, it’s that enforcement alone is not and cannot be the answer,” Patel added. “It is difficult to envision a scenario where we ever are able to simply indict our way out of any societal problem.”
The latest round of federal arrests comes after a sustained spate of shootings and violence in Cincinnati, including a deadly July 4 shooting that left the two teenaged shooters dead and several bystanders injured. Police have not yet recovered the firearms the teens had used.
In August, the Cincinnati Police Department plans to open a gun crime intelligence center to track firearms used in crimes, from their manufacturing date to their first sale to their different owners. The effort will be a collaboration with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s office, the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, parole and probation officers and others, Isaac said.
“They (guns) come from a multitude of places. They’re stolen from cars, they’re stolen from homes and businesses. People purchase them legally, then pass them on to others who are prohibited persons,” Isaac said. “I’m certainly not an anti-gun person — obviously I’m a police officer, I’m a military veteran — but I also know that our country has produced more firearms and sold more firearms (in 2020) than any year on record.”
“More guns are being produced, more guns are being sold. That simply means that there are more guns available, and I think that is a big part of what we’re seeing,” the chief added.
During a briefing on Tuesday, Mayor Cranley said that Ohio lawmakers who refuse to consider violence-reduction policies are contributing to the region’s increase in violence.
Cranley also said that Cincinnati is not alone in experiencing an uptick in gun violence, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. Throughout Ohio, gun sales had increased in 2020, largely as opposition to COVID-19 health regulations. And Ohio is one of the worst states in the nation for gun safety laws, the Giffords Law Center reported earlier this year.
The Cincinnati Enquirer recently reported that gun violence during 2020 spiked in Cincinnati, but for the first half of 2021, the number of homicides were lower than in previous years.
Beginning Friday, the Cincinnati Police Department is adding 20-25 mobile officers to weekend patrols throughout the summer. The officers are working volunteer overtime beyond their regular shifts, Emily Szink, the Cincinnati Police Department’s public information officer, told CityBeat on Thursday. The summer street additions are highly mobile so they can watch populous areas and immediately respond to incidents.
This mobile squad is paid through the department’s regular overtime budget, and these additional officers do not reduce the number of staff already assigned to districts, Szink said.
Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get the latest on the news, things to do and places to eat delivered right to your inbox.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Related Stories
Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac Announces Retirement Timeline
Lt. Col. Teresa Theetge Becomes Interim Police Chief, First Woman to Lead Local Police
This article appears in The Burger Issue 2021.
