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Gun in massacre linked to 2 cops
Both had owned weapon illegally before killer got it
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By David Heinzmann, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Manya Brachear contributed to this report
August 30, 2003
A day after the family of three men slain this week by a former co-worker decried the lax control of handguns, Chicago police acknowledged that the two last known owners of the gun Salvador Tapia used in his rampage were Chicago police officers, neither of whom had legally registered the weapon.
One of the officers was Richard Schott, who died of a heart attack in 1997 after struggling with a prisoner in the Deering District lockup, sources said. Schott sold the gun to another officer, with whom he had worked closely between 1994 and his death, the sources added.
The Police Department declined to identify the second officer, who died in 2002. Interviews with their families and the gun's previous owner, who has been jailed in the case, have created a trail of possession that ends somewhere between 1994 and 2002, police spokesman David Bayless said.
Police do not yet know how or when Tapia, 36, acquired the gun. Under a court order of protection since August 2001, Tapia could not legally possess a firearm. But he walked into the Windy City Core Supply warehouse at 3912 S. Wallace St. Wednesday morning armed with the Walther PP .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun and an extra clip of ammunition.
Over the next several minutes he shot to death six men, including three members of the Weiner family from the North Shore. In a statement Thursday, family members said Alan Weiner, his brother Howard Weiner and Howard's son Daniel Weiner were killed because of "lax control over handguns in our community."
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced the weapon to the Blue Island Gun Shop, which received the gun from the manufacturer in 1966 and sold it to Milton R. Beuck. The last official record of the gun was 1983, when Beuck registered it legally in Chicago.
Beuck told police he had sold it to a Chicago police officer, identified by sources as Schott, at a bar in 1994, Bayless said. The police officer sold the gun to a second officer sometime between 1994 and 1997, according to a friend of the first officer. The second officer died in 2002 and it is unclear what became of the gun, Bayless said.
"It was not registered and it should have been," he said.
On Thursday, police charged Beuck, who is 58 and homeless, with a misdemeanor for failing to keep records of the gun, authorities said. In Bond Court Friday, Cook County Judge Marvin Luckman ordered him held on $100,000 bond and assigned him to the Cermak Hospital division of Cook County Jail.
The high bond was ordered because of the seriousness of the eventual crime in which the gun was used and because there was an outstanding drunken driving warrant for Beuck, said Jerry Lawrence, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.
There is an 18-month statute of limitations on the misdemeanor charge, Lawrence said, but because the law requires a gun owner to maintain records for 10 years, Beuck was currently violating the law by not maintaining a record of the 1994 sale through next year.
Beuck allegedly sold the gun to the first police officer, identified by sources as Schott, in a South Side bar where they met, Bayless said. An employee of the bar, who was friends with the officer, told police the officer later sold the gun to the second officer, Bayless said. Efforts to reach employees of the bar were unsuccessful.
Though civilians have been barred from registering newly acquired handguns in Chicago since 1983, peace officers, military personnel and other exempt people still are required to register their guns with the Police Department, said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's Law Department.
Bayless acknowledged it was distressing that two police officers had violated the city's gun law and contributed to the weapon's illegitimacy. But, he said, Tapia's past behavior made it clear that he would have found a gun somewhere if the Walther was not available.
"Salvador Tapia would have gotten a gun somewhere," he said. The disclosure of the officers' role "also demonstrates we're going to do a thorough investigation documenting the path of this gun every step of the way before it got into his hands."
Alan Weiner's daughter Jamie, 20, said Friday she was troubled to hear that the gun used to kill her father, uncle and cousin was owned illegally by two police officers.
"I want to put an end to the guns ...," she said Friday. "The wrong people have guns."
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
Both had owned weapon illegally before killer got it
Advertisement
By David Heinzmann, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Manya Brachear contributed to this report
August 30, 2003
A day after the family of three men slain this week by a former co-worker decried the lax control of handguns, Chicago police acknowledged that the two last known owners of the gun Salvador Tapia used in his rampage were Chicago police officers, neither of whom had legally registered the weapon.
One of the officers was Richard Schott, who died of a heart attack in 1997 after struggling with a prisoner in the Deering District lockup, sources said. Schott sold the gun to another officer, with whom he had worked closely between 1994 and his death, the sources added.
The Police Department declined to identify the second officer, who died in 2002. Interviews with their families and the gun's previous owner, who has been jailed in the case, have created a trail of possession that ends somewhere between 1994 and 2002, police spokesman David Bayless said.
Police do not yet know how or when Tapia, 36, acquired the gun. Under a court order of protection since August 2001, Tapia could not legally possess a firearm. But he walked into the Windy City Core Supply warehouse at 3912 S. Wallace St. Wednesday morning armed with the Walther PP .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun and an extra clip of ammunition.
Over the next several minutes he shot to death six men, including three members of the Weiner family from the North Shore. In a statement Thursday, family members said Alan Weiner, his brother Howard Weiner and Howard's son Daniel Weiner were killed because of "lax control over handguns in our community."
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced the weapon to the Blue Island Gun Shop, which received the gun from the manufacturer in 1966 and sold it to Milton R. Beuck. The last official record of the gun was 1983, when Beuck registered it legally in Chicago.
Beuck told police he had sold it to a Chicago police officer, identified by sources as Schott, at a bar in 1994, Bayless said. The police officer sold the gun to a second officer sometime between 1994 and 1997, according to a friend of the first officer. The second officer died in 2002 and it is unclear what became of the gun, Bayless said.
"It was not registered and it should have been," he said.
On Thursday, police charged Beuck, who is 58 and homeless, with a misdemeanor for failing to keep records of the gun, authorities said. In Bond Court Friday, Cook County Judge Marvin Luckman ordered him held on $100,000 bond and assigned him to the Cermak Hospital division of Cook County Jail.
The high bond was ordered because of the seriousness of the eventual crime in which the gun was used and because there was an outstanding drunken driving warrant for Beuck, said Jerry Lawrence, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.
There is an 18-month statute of limitations on the misdemeanor charge, Lawrence said, but because the law requires a gun owner to maintain records for 10 years, Beuck was currently violating the law by not maintaining a record of the 1994 sale through next year.
Beuck allegedly sold the gun to the first police officer, identified by sources as Schott, in a South Side bar where they met, Bayless said. An employee of the bar, who was friends with the officer, told police the officer later sold the gun to the second officer, Bayless said. Efforts to reach employees of the bar were unsuccessful.
Though civilians have been barred from registering newly acquired handguns in Chicago since 1983, peace officers, military personnel and other exempt people still are required to register their guns with the Police Department, said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's Law Department.
Bayless acknowledged it was distressing that two police officers had violated the city's gun law and contributed to the weapon's illegitimacy. But, he said, Tapia's past behavior made it clear that he would have found a gun somewhere if the Walther was not available.
"Salvador Tapia would have gotten a gun somewhere," he said. The disclosure of the officers' role "also demonstrates we're going to do a thorough investigation documenting the path of this gun every step of the way before it got into his hands."
Alan Weiner's daughter Jamie, 20, said Friday she was troubled to hear that the gun used to kill her father, uncle and cousin was owned illegally by two police officers.
"I want to put an end to the guns ...," she said Friday. "The wrong people have guns."
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
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