Former Deputy Charged With Illegally Selling Guns in School Shooting Case
Federal prosecutors say that a former sheriff’s deputy in Philadelphia illegally sold two guns that were used in a school shooting that killed five people.
The Department of Justice said Thursday that 29-year-old Samir Ahmad of Philadelphia has been charged with gun trafficking and selling guns illegally to someone in the United States.
A criminal complaint that was made public on Thursday says that Ahmad sold several guns to an FBI informant who was in the country illegally while working as a deputy sheriff for the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office.
The complaint says that on April 27, one of the sales was for a revolver. Prosecutors also said that on October 13, he sold two semi-automatic pistols to the informant for $3,000 each.
Federal prosecutors say that the two guns were used in a recent shooting outside of Philadelphia’s Roxborough High School. The DOJ says that at least four people opened fire outside the high school on September 27. At least five high school students were shot, and one of them died.
“Only two weeks later, the defendant got two of the guns used in that shooting and sold them to the informant,” prosecutors wrote in a motion for pretrial detention filed on Wednesday.
“The fact that the defendant was able to get these guns so quickly after they were used in such a horrible crime says a lot about how dangerous this defendant is to the community.”
The motion also says that on October 18, Ahmad sold more than 50 grams of methamphetamine and another semi-automatic pistol to the informant.
The DOJ says that on October 19, Ahmad, who had been a deputy with the sheriff’s office since February 2018, was fired and put in jail.
The DOJ says that he could get up to 15 years in prison if he is found guilty of trafficking in firearms. On Oct. 18, he could also be charged with selling drugs and firearms. No one knows if Ahmad has a lawyer or not. Online court records don’t have any information about lawyers.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said, “As alleged, Samir Ahmad abused his power as a sworn law enforcement officer to the fullest extent possible.” She also said that the former deputy “added fuel to the already raging fire of deadly gun violence in the city of Philadelphia.”
The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office says that Ahmad was fired because he broke the office’s “directions, policies, and procedures” over and over again. The statement said, “As always, the Sheriff’s Office will work with local, state, and federal authorities.”
