Flint Warrant Sweep 021

A Flint Police officer's hand rests near his gun and holster as Flint Police, in coordination with more than 40 officers of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, sweep for outstanding warrants on Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at the 3300 block of Kleinpell Street on Flint's east side. Police arrested 19 people and cleared 41 warrants throughout the morning. Jake May | MLive.com

(Jake May | MLive.com)

FLINT, MI -- A 15-year-old boy was poking around near a Jackson convenience store last November when he made an interesting find under some leaves.

A .45-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic handgun.

But this wasn't just any pistol -- this one belonged to the city of Flint Police Department.

Within a matter of days, the same gun that Flint taxpayers bought to help protect and serve the public was used by a teen robber who accidentally shot himself in the leg with it.

Another Flint officer's gun ended up in the hands of Detroit police after it was used in a crime there, while a third Flint police gun was missing for nearly a decade before it was entered into a nationwide database that tracks stolen guns.

In all, 17 service pistols and shotguns belonging to Flint police are officially listed as stolen, while another 22 guns used by Flint police are listed as lost or missing -- including a sub-machine gun and a short-barreled shotgun.

Police department records obtained by The Flint Journal through the Freedom of Information Act detail how poor record keeping, break-ins and questionable gun storage practices allowed these firearms to go missing from Flint police inventory.

It was only after a long-overdue inventory of the Flint police property room was finally done in February that the scope of the losses was discovered.

Despite the city's well-documented, high rate of gun violence, the inventory and other city records do not indicate that any of the missing guns were used to break the law in Flint.

With 516 firearms still registered in the Flint arsenal, Flint police Chief James Tolbert said the city is working to shrink the number of guns on hand to better match a department that has undergone drastic cuts in recent years.

The city has 200 service pistols, 136 Remington shotguns, 78 AR-15 rifles, and a handful of various sub-machine guns and gas guns on hand for its 114 officers.

Tolbert said he would research what firearms his officers need and find ways to eliminate the guns that are no longer used by his department.

"Why do we need them?" Tolbert asked about the excess firearms.

A gun left behind

Flint police Officer Cary Wooster was staying at his girlfriend's house in Lansing the night of Aug. 21, 2013, when he decided to store his Smith & Wesson .45-caliber service pistol and holster underneath the driver's seat of his Chevrolet Blazer, according to records obtained from Flint police.

Wooster told supervisors he stored the weapon in his vehicle for the safety of his girlfriend's 5-year-old child who lived at the home. He left his girlfriend's home around 6 a.m. the next day to report for his shift in Flint, the holster still visible under the seat, but his vehicle broke down after exiting Interstate 69 near Grand Traverse Street.

Another Flint officer found Wooster waiting on the side of the road and offered to give him a ride to the department. Wooster locked his vehicle and left. He returned nearly a half hour later to find the driver door ajar.

The gun and holster were gone.

Just over a month later, a 15-year-old boy was near the Greenwood Quickmart in Jackson when he found Wooster's gun under some leaves, according to a police report obtained by The Flint Journal from Jackson police.

The boy picked up the gun.

Days later, the boy and his friend, also a 15-year-old, were staying the night at the boy's home. The two teens looked at and held the gun. The next day, the boys would put it to use.

The 15-year-old and his friend found a local drug dealer, also a 15-year-old, and asked to buy marijuana.

After the dealer gave the pair nearly a half-pound of pot, police records show the boy's friend pulled up his shirt and showed the gun to the drug dealer.

"You're not getting paid," the boy's friend told the dealer, according to the police report.

The two teens ran away, the boy told police. As they ran, the boy who found the gun said he heard a bang. The gun had gone off and shot his friend in the leg.

Wooster told The Flint Journal he was never informed his gun was discovered in Jackson, and he was unaware that it was ever used in a crime.

The boy was hospitalized with a non-life-threatening injury, and police sought a warrant for him for armed robbery. The boy who found the gun was lodged for carrying a concealed weapon and receiving and concealing stolen property. Police sought a warrant for delivery of marijuana for the drug dealer.

Tolbert said Wooster was disciplined for the incident. He is retired from the department.

Wooster isn't the only Flint officer to have a service pistol stolen from a vehicle.

From cars to homes

Flint police Sgt. Doris Henry, a school liaison officer, had her Smith & Wesson 9 mm service pistol stolen Dec. 9, 1994, from her liaison vehicle while working on Crapo Street near Flint Central High School, according to Flint police records.

The theft of the gun wasn't discovered by the department's quartermaster, who maintains the department's inventory, until 2002, when he uncovered information about a missing weapon, according to a Flint police report.

No criminal complaint was filed, and the gun was not filed in the Law Enforcement Information Network, a database that helps authorities track stolen firearms, immediately following the incident, the report shows.

The homes of Flint police officers also were targeted by thieves.

Former Flint police Officer Dan Allen, who currently serves as the Argentine Township police chief, was victimized by such an incident in June 1998 while he was serving on the city's police force.

Thieves were able to gain entry to the rear sun porch of his East Second Street home and take off with his 9 mm service pistol and shoulder holster.

"It could happen to anybody," Allen said.

Tolbert said the gun was eventually recovered by police in Detroit in connection with a crime there. Tolbert said his department is working to try and determine what type of crime the gun was involved in.

Too many guns?

City Councilwoman Vicki VanBuren, chair of the council's public safety committee, said she supports the chief's attempts to prevent future missing weapons, but she hopes the weapons aren't eliminated without justification.

VanBuren said officers on the streets need to be properly outfitted to take on criminals who could have large firearms arsenals of their own.

For the guns that remain in the department's possession, Tolbert said, officers are required to take proper care to ensure their firearms are not stolen or lost while in their possession. Officers who are issued long guns, such as rifles and shotguns, are required to have in-home gun safes to prevent possible thefts, Tolbert said.

Safes are not required for officers who are issued pistols, the chief said.

VanBuren said these precautions are a serious matter due to the likelihood of the guns being used in a future crime. She said thieves are stealing firearms for personal protection; they are being taken to be used in other nefarious purposes.

"It's almost like that's what is destined to happen," VanBuren said after learning of the Detroit and Jackson incidents with Flint police weapons.

However, thieves may not be directly connected to all of the guns missing from Flint inventory.

Documentation could not be found for any complete inventory review in the past three decades at the department, although a partial inventory was conducted in 2003, according to police.

The 2003 inventory revealed that 30 firearms were unaccounted for. But, during the Feb. 9 inventory this year, officers located 13 firearms that were reported stolen in 2003, police officials said.

Flint police reports show officers found two of the previously missing service pistols in 2014, inside the department's property room.

The department discovered one of the pistols while officers were cleaning the property room. The gun was found in a brown bag from the Michigan State Police's Bridgeport Crime Lab that was in a milk crate.

Tolbert said his department has taken steps to prevent similar inventory problems in the future by requiring a full accounting of the department's firearm inventory twice per year.

VanBuren said she was surprised to learn a proper accounting had not been conducted over such a long period, particularly during years when the city had more staff on hand to do such checks.

"You would think with them having more personnel at the time, they'd have better processes to inventory," VanBuren said.

Tolbert also said previously that some of the missing weapons may be attributed to paperwork problems, adding that some of the weapons attributed to the department may actually belong to other departments in the county.

"We have found there were some other discrepancies, that there was a paperwork issue," Tolbert said previously.

He added that some of the guns may have been sold to dealers in the past, but the proper paperwork was never filed with the department.

The chief, however, wasn't able to dismiss the possibility that some of the firearms may have been taken by people associated with the department.

Tolbert vowed that his department would conduct thorough investigations if the missing firearms turn up on the street, to determine how they made their way out of the department's possession.

Since he's started in Flint, Tolbert said no further weapons have been reported missing or stolen.

"I guarantee you, it won't happen like that anymore," Tolbert said of the missing guns.