GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- U.S. Attorney Mark Totten and a special ATF agent have announced sentencing today for a 25-year-old Grand Rapids man they say was involved in firearms trafficking that resulted in the fatal shooting of a two-year-old in Wyoming.
Speaking a late-morning news conference, Totten said the gun used in that crime was purchased in the City of Wyoming in September 2021.
"The Kent County Prosecutor has filed charges in that case against the child's father, whose name is Senita Parks," he said.
The feds announced today that Jerreil LaMounta Martin of Grand Rapids will serve three years and a month in prison for illegally buying and trafficking 45 firearms. He was part of a gun-trafficking ring that investigators say included the illegal "straw purchase" of firearms used in related crimes across the state.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Jonker also ordered three years of supervised release after Martin gets out of prison.
Totten said Martin bought and trafficked another semi-automatic pistol in Wyoming in 2021.
"A little over a year later, Grand Rapids Police responded to multiple shootings in a downtown area on and around the Blue Bridge, which resulted in four victims," Totten said.
According to a news release, Martin ran an illegal gun trafficking business, charging customers $50 to $100 per firearm to lie on the purchase forms, saying he was buying the guns for himself when he was really purchasing them for other people. This tactic is sometimes referred to as “straw purchasing.”
“Straw purchasing and gun trafficking drive a dangerous black market for firearms,” Totten said. “These crimes feed the violence that plague communities across Michigan – including the horrible killing of an innocent 2-year-old child less than a year ago. My office will hold straw purchasers and illegal gun traffickers accountable for creating these supply lines of violence.”
Police have recovered 14 of the 45 straw-purchased and trafficked firearms, so far. Here is the timeline provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office for Western Michigan:
In Kent County
• A Ruger 5.7 x 28 mm semi-automatic pistol, which Martin purchased on September 4, 2021, was used to kill a 2-year-old child on February 9, 2022, in Wyoming, Michigan. The Kent County Prosecutor has filed charges against the victim’s father, Seninta Parks, in this case.
• A Glock .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, which Martin purchased on September 7, 2021, was used in a shooting on the Blue Bridge in downtown Grand Rapids on September 11, 2022, in which four people were injured. Moreover, this same gun was used in two prior shootings in Grand Rapids.
• A Glock 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, which Martin purchased on September 7, 2021, was used in three separate drive-by shooting incidents in Grand Rapids over the next two months.
In Genesee County
• A Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol, which Martin purchased on April 22, 2021, was used in a drive-by shooting in Flint, which struck an 11-year-old girl.
• Another Glock 9mm pistol, which Martin also purchased on April 22, 2021, was used in a homicide in Flint.
In Isabella County
• A Glock .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol, which Martin purchased on September 10, 2021, was recovered by Central Michigan University Police in connection to a series of vehicle break-ins.
Martin was told by investigators that the Ruger 5.7 x 28 mm semi-automatic pistol he purchased on September 4, 2021, was used to kill a child, as described above. Undeterred, Martin attempted to straw purchase and traffic another firearm to a person he knew was a convicted felon. Law enforcement then arrested Martin and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan charged him for the crimes he now stands convicted.
The case was investigated by the ATF and the Metro Pattern Crimes Team consisting of detectives from the Kentwood Police Department, Kent County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wyoming Police Department as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods, a nationwide initiative to reduce violent crime.
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