Dec. 23--The gun used in the ambush of two new York City police officers has been traced to a pawnshop in the Atlanta area, a federal official said Tuesday.
The gun, a Taurus 9 millimeter, was purchased at an Atlanta pawnshop in 1996 by a man who worked in a restaurant and car dealership, Special Agent in Charge Aladino Ortiz of the Atlanta office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told the Los Angeles Times.
That man sold the weapon to a coworker at the dealership in 1998 but it was not known how the weapon got into the hands of Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who shot and killed two NYPD officers Saturday. Brinsley would have been about 12 years old at the time of the second sale.
"At this point the individual doesn't remember who he sold the gun to," Ortiz said. "We are continuing to follow the leads but the trail is a little cold at this point."
"We may never know how Mr. Brinsley got it into his hands," Ortiz said.
The weapon used to shoot Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos was recovered after Brinsley, 28, shot himself to death Saturday.
ATF traces the weapon by running the serial number against various databases.
The weapon was legally sold in 1998 as far as the federal government is concerned, Ortiz said. After 1998, the gun could have changed hands "five, six, eight, 20 times," he said.
Ortiz declined to release the names of the pawnshop and purchaser, citing the investigation. The story was first reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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