Stamford PD: Stolen guns belong to Norwalk police officer

Stamford police cars in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. Stamford police cars in Stamford, Conn. on Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. Photo: Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Michael Cummo / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Stamford PD: Stolen guns belong to Norwalk police officer 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

STAMFORD — The high-powered guns stolen out of a car by two suspects from Stamford and Greenwich belong to a Norwalk police officer who lives in downtown Stamford, court records show.

Stamford police made their second arrest Tuesday for the theft of a semiautomatic assault rifle with two loaded 30-round magazines and a rapid-fire 12-gauge “tactical” shotgun sometime late Sunday night or Monday morning.

Ricardo Reinoso-Santana, 26, of Custer Street, was charged Tuesday with possession of a large capacity magazine, criminal possession of a weapon, two counts of stealing a firearm, second-degree burglary and third-degree larceny. He was held on a $370,000 court appearance bond.

On Monday evening, about 14 hours after the reported theft, police recovered the guns and arrested Johon Cifuentes, 32, of Greenwich, after officers followed him from a residence in Greenwich to Stamford, according to a police report. They charged him with two counts each of stealing a firearm and and being a felon in possession of a firearm, illegal possession of an assault weapon, criminal possession of ammunition and illegal possession of a large magazine. He is being held in lieu of a $350,000 court appearance bond.

On Monday morning at about 7:30 a.m. Stamford police were called to Linden Place on a report from Norwalk police officer Edgar Gonzalez that his assault rifle and shotgun had been stolen out of his vehicle, according to a Stamford police report. Gonzalez explained that at about 7 a.m. a neighbor pointed out that the left rear passenger door to his car was open.

Gonzalez said he brought the weapons home early Sunday morning and drove his car that same day on two occasions before parking it on Sunday afternoon at 5:50 p.m. Gonzalez said that he locked the car, but police said they found no signs of forced entry.

The report said the two guns had been placed in a single soft shell case between the front and rear seats.

It was not clear Wednesday whether Gonzales will face charges or other consequences for not securing the guns. Police have charged a few people recently for improperly storing firearms in their cars that were then stolen. A message left with Norwalk police to see if Gonzalez will be facing any repercussions for the theft was not returned. Reached by phone on Wednesday afternoon, Gonzalez declined comment on the story.

According to another police report, police in the Narcotics and Organized Crime squad had heard since early November that a man named Johon had been breaking into motor vehicles throughout the city of Stamford. “Johon will search for unlocked vehicles and enter them in search of valuables,” the report stated.

Police were quickly able to identify the suspect as Johon Cifuentes, who was arrested in Stamford at the end of 2018 for allegedly having 13 pounds of marijuana. On the same day the guns were reported stolen, police heard that Cifuentes was offering the weapons for sale.

A little after 5 p.m. police began surveillance of a house on Byram Road in Greenwich, and saw Cifuentes walk out of the rear entrance to the home carrying a soft shell rifle case, which he put into the trunk of a Honda Civic, according to the police report. Officers followed him and with the help of armed members of the Special Response Team, pulled him over in Stamford in the area of Elm Street and Myrtle Avenue, near Colony Pizza, at about 8:30 p.m.

A search of the Honda revealed that he was carrying the stolen 12-gauge Remington shotgun and Colt Carbine Trooper semiautomatic rifle along with five 12-guage shotgun shells, 6 boxes of bullets for the rifle, and one 30-round rifle magazine with 28 bullets, the report said.

“We are very proud of all the hard work of the Stamford Police Department, with all its units working in tandem on this investigation. Narcotics and Organized Crime was influential in finding real-time information we were able to work with, along with components of the Special Response Team that helped take (Cifuentes) into custody,” On Stamford Police Department Capt. Richard Conklin said Tuesday.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com