2 held in theft of guns from lunching SWAT team
By Chris Conley
April 26, 2007
Memphis Police Wednesday charged one man and were holding at least one more in connection with the theft of tactical weapons, including three automatic assault weapons, from a out of state SWAT van.
Six of the eight stolen weapons had been recovered by Wednesday night, police said.
Brian Bowles, 21, was charged with the theft of a 2006 Ford Expedition that was used by thieves as a "work car" to break into the Wake County, North Carolina, SWAT team van Monday afternoon outside the Interstate Bar-B-Que.
Taken from the team's unmarked Chevrolet van were three assault rifles, three shotguns, two handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
An assault rifle was recovered Tuesday. The two other assault rifles and all three shotguns were back in police hands Wednesday night. The two handguns had yet to be found.
"We're still working on those last two," Memphis police spokesman Vince Higgins said.
Shelby County Sheriff's deputies early Tuesday recovered the Expedition in Millington, and crime scene investigators lifted Bowles' prints from inside the Expedition.
The van, which was owned by an elderly Florida man, was stolen from the lot of Bally's Casino in Tunica on April 19.
The plates on the Expedition were switched by the thieves and the van was used to carry off the weapons from the SWAT van, police said.
Bowles turned himself in to the Sheriff's Office fugitive squad late Tuesday. He gave a written statement to members of the Memphis Police Project Safe Neighborhoods squad in which he admitted he knew the Expedition was stolen, according to the charges. He said he was going to sell some stolen speakers.
"The case broke fast when we recovered the Ford Expedition," Higgins said.
On Tuesday afternoon, Memphis police began looking for a second man, Clent Green, 23. They arrested him early Wednesday on outstanding warrants for vehicle thefts. He was being questioned Wednesday, but had not been charged in the weapons theft.