News updates are sent daily. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Cache of assault rifles found in Gilbert locker
Digg|
Save|
License|
Print|
E-mail|
The seized weapons add to a number of similar illegal guns that ATF agents have recently uncovered in the area.
Lisa Olson, Tribune
Gilbert Police load guns into the back of a vehicle after confiscating them from storage unit at a Public Storage facility in Gilbert.
Lisa Olson, Tribune
In what was called an “unsettling” find, federal agents uncovered a huge cache of assault weapons Saturday morning in a Gilbert storage locker and believe it belongs to a man with a history of threatening police.
Even more disturbing, agents said, is that the find adds to a large number of similar weapons seized in the Valley during the past month.
Steve Bentley, 40, of Gilbert was picked up late Friday on suspicion of threatening his probation officer, police said.
He was on probation after an arrest in May on suspicion of threatening a Gilbert officer, said Gilbert detective Joe Gilligan.
During questioning this weekend, Bentley told officers he had guns in the storage locker at 1636 W. Park Ave., just north of Elliot and McQueen roads. Officers called in the federal agents, who obtained a search warrant and opened the locker.
Inside the small locker, they found “wall-to-wall guns” — about 80 in all — said Peter Forcelli, a supervisory special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Most were assault weapons like AK-47s and AR-15s, he said.
Because of his prior convictions, Bentley is not allowed to own the guns, Forcelli said. These kinds have the ability to go right through an officer’s bullet-proof vest, he said.
“It’s unsettling,” Forcelli said. “This is a guy who’s got the propensity to do bad things.”
The weapons seized on Saturday add to a number of similar illegal guns ATF agents have recently uncovered in the area. In all, more than 200 have been found in and around the Valley since Dec. 1, Forcelli said.
The assault weapons also are the same types used in deadly mass shootings in Omaha, Neb., and at Virginia Tech University, he said.
Many of the other weapons found this month were likely being trafficked to Mexico, but Forcelli said agents didn’t believe Bentley had plans to do that.
“We want to find out where he got them, what his intentions were,” Forcelli said.
By Saturday afternoon, when agents were loading the weapons into vehicles to be moved out of storage area, Forcelli was calling the seizure an example of good teamwork involving a number of agencies. All told, investigators from Mesa and Gilbert police departments, the Maricopa County Adult Probation Department, ATF and the U.S. Marshals Service helped out.
Please add your comments, but follow these guidelines to keep this a safe, credible place for discussing the news: