Former Philadelphia sheriff’s deputy charged with selling guns illegally, including 2 previously used in fatal shooting of teen
By Kristina Sgueglia, CNN
A now-former Philadelphia sheriff’s deputy is charged with selling guns illegally to an FBI informant while he was a deputy, including two that were traced back to the deadly Roxborough shooting, two weeks earlier, that left a 14-year-old dead and four juveniles wounded, according to court documents.
Samir Ahmad is charged with firearms trafficking and selling firearms to a person unlawfully in the United States, since the informant told the then-deputy at the time of the purchase that they were in the country illegally, the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said in a release.
“You don’t got to worry about none of that,” Ahmad, a four-year veteran with the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office, responded, according to court documents.
Ahmad was terminated from employment on October 19 and arrested by federal agents, prosecutors said. The case was unsealed Thursday.
CNN has reached out to Ahmad’s reported attorney for comment.
The US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania offered a scathing review of Ahmad’s behavior in their memo for detention. They say that just two weeks after the shooting outside Roxborough High School, he was able to obtain the weapons used.
“The fact that the defendant had access to these guns so quickly after they were used to commit such a horrific crime speaks volumes about the danger that this defendant poses to the community,” prosecutors wrote in the memo.
How he obtained the guns is under investigation, according to Jennifer Crandall, public information officer with the US Attorney’s office.
According to court documents, Ahmad also sold the informant methamphetamine in one of the meet-ups.
“His ties to this community, including his family members who live here, the oath he took and the badge that he wore, were not enough to stop him from trafficking in guns and drugs,” prosecutors said in a motion for pretrial detention.
“The defendant abandoned his commitment to this community long ago, when he decided that crime was more profitable and convenient than upholding the oath he pledged to the citizens of Philadelphia,” the detention memo, filed Wednesday, stated.
While prosecutors argue there may have been “a time when the defendant seemingly understood right from wrong,” his actions including a willingness to sell drugs and guns, “demonstrate that his moral compass is broken,” the motion stated.
Ahmad was served with a notice of intent to dismiss for “repeated violations of the Philadelphia Sheriff Office directives, policies, and procedures,” the office said in a statement.
“As always, the Office of the Sheriff will continue to cooperate with local, state, and federal authorities,” the statement said.
The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, which represents both police and deputy sheriffs, had no comment.
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