 
|
|||||||||
              
|
Gun's past puts heat on dealer
Wednesday, April 19, 2000 By Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Correction/Clarification: (Published April 20, 2000) An 11-year-old Wilkinsburg boy shot at by a man who broke into his home did not owe the man money. A story in yesterday’s editions about the trial of a man accused of illegally selling the gun used in the shooting said incorrectly that he did.
On Nov. 20, 1998, two men burst into Curtis Heflin's Penn Hills home and shot him to death with a semiautomatic handgun.
A month later the same gun, a Beretta 9 mm, was used in a Wilkinsburg shooting in which a man broke into a house and fired at an 11-year-old boy.
Federal prosecutors think they know where that gun came from, along with nine others like it: Ben "the gun man" Dickerson, 29, of Homewood.
The men who used the gun ended up in the state penitentiary, but Dickerson could be headed to federal prison if a jury in U.S. District Court decides he's what police call a "straw purchaser" -- someone who buys guns legally and then resells them to people who aren't allowed to have firearms.
Police believe Andre Colton and David Bundy, convicted in the murder of Curtis Heflin and now serving life terms, were Dickerson's clients in Homewood, where they all lived.
Dickerson's trial began Monday. According to the U.S. attorney's office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, he bought 10 handguns from dealers and then resold them on the street to convicted felons, who by law aren't allowed to have guns.
Dickerson, who bought the Beretta at Braverman Arms Co., was indicted in December along with four other men for dealing in illegal guns following an investigation by local police and the ATF.
The indictments were part of Operation Target, a federal, state and local program to combat gun violence. One strategy of the effort is to pursue straw purchasers and illegal dealers, who supply an estimated 75 percent of guns used in crimes.
Braverman Arms, located in Wilkinsburg, is not charged with any wrongdoing. Authorities said the company and other legitimate dealers are cooperating in the investigation.
Yesterday in court, several Homewood men took the stand to testify that they bought guns from Dickerson.
Members of the Operation Target task force asked that the witnesses in the trial not be identified because of fear of retaliation in their neighborhood. In exchange for their testimony against Dickerson, they are not being prosecuted for buying the guns illegally.
One felon, who knew Dickerson as "Ben the gun man," said he went with Dickerson to a gun shop to pick out an Intratec pistol. But he knew he couldn't buy it himself because of his criminal record, so he said Dickerson bought it and filled out the purchase form, which warns against buying guns for third parties.
Dickerson later filed off the serial number and told the man not to use the weapon until he called police to report it stolen, according to the testimony.
Another witness, who has three convictions for carrying a concealed weapon without a license, said he bought a .357-caliber handgun from Dickerson for $180 and then passed it on to another man along with a box of shells.
The trial is expected to conclude today.
|
||||||||
