Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota holds up an illegal gun during a press conference at his Hauppauge office on Thursday, April 12, 2012 (Rashed Mian/Long Island Press)
Suffolk County authorities took aim at “lax gun-control laws” after rounding up seven men for allegedly selling guns from the South to Long Island gang members, including a suspect accused of using one of the weapons to fatally shoot a teenager in December 2010.
The alleged triggerman, 18-year-old Barry Yorke, a reputed gang member, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and criminal sale of a firearm. Authorities said he shot and killed Juan Rosario, a 19-year-old taxi driver, during a robbery at the Long Island Rail Road station in Copiague, where both the victim and the suspect were from. Yorke allegedly made off with $100.
Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota said Thursday that the Hi-Point .9mm semiautomatic handgun used in the killing was traced to a pawn shop in Macon, Ga., a state with what he called “lax gun-control laws.” The gun was allegedly sold by Yorke’s step-brother, Randy Roland, who was also arrested for illegally selling guns. The gun used in the murder was linked to two other shootings in Suffolk, Spota added.
“My client denies having anything to do with it,” said Yorke’s attorney, Daniel Russo. “I’m waiting to see what evidence, if any, they have against him.” Yorke is being held at Suffolk County jail after pleading not guilty and being denied bail.
The other guns seized by police in the case were traced to Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and California.
“Every single day of the week our police officers are putting themselves in harm’s way to protect our communities and communities throughout the State of New York from violent criminals in their efforts to get illegal weapons off the streets of Suffolk County and elsewhere,” Spota said.
Barry Yorke was charged in the shooting of a 19-year-old taxi driver in 2010 using this gun
He blasted congressional lawmakers not enacting stricter gun control laws that would limit criminals from acquiring illegal guns. He commended New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly for being on the forefront of the war on illegal guns nationwide.
Eight NYPD officers, five of them from Long Island, were shot—one fatally—by suspects with illegal handguns since December. In Suffolk County, Spota said 15 people were shot to death last year.
“Clearly the problem lies in other states—mostly states in the south or the west—and particularly the southern states that have lax gun-control laws,” said Spota, who described lawmakers’ silence regarding the issue as “deafening.”
Spota said the arrest of the seven men, who all face weapons charges and have criminal records, was part of a year-long investigation by the district attorney’s Firearms Suppression Team and police, who together seized 75 illegal guns. Some were used in more than one crime.
He added that ShotSpotter, a high-tech gunshot detection system that Suffolk recently installed, reported 517 alerts from December to March. It picked up 186 shots in Wyandanch; 112 in Huntington Station; 112 in Brentwood; and 91 in North Bellport.
Officials said illegal guns usually flow to northern states after the firearms are purchased illegally at pawn shops or flea markets without proper background checks in the south. Criminals then typically play a game of hot potato with the guns by using them and then handing them off to someone else.
“We in law enforcement thankfully have been far more fortunate, but I’m just wondering with so many guns in the streets how long our luck is going to last,” Spota said.
