Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., and New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton today announced the indictment of Abdul Davia, 52, for selling 82 firearms and corresponding ammunition to an undercover NYPD detective posing as a Manhattan-based gun dealer, and Davis’s girlfriend, Shelita Funderberk, 50, for her role in the sales. The indictment also charges four Virginia- and Georgia-based men – Trenton Pointer, 45, Daemon Jenkins, 49, Malik Rainey, 44, and Milton Tillery, 37 – for knowingly supplying the firearms for illegal sales in New York City.
The defendants are all charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree, as well as various counts of Criminal Sale of a Firearm in the First, Second, and Third Degrees. The indictment follows a long-term investigation, including the use of court-authorized wiretaps, conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s Trial Division and detectives from the NYPD’s Firearms Investigation Unit.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., said: “This alleged interstate trafficking conspiracy clearly illustrates how deadly firearms from ‘Iron Pipeline’ states flood New York City’s streets. To stem the flow of illegal guns, we must deter traffickers from this lucrative business by prosecuting not only Manhattan-based illegal weapons dealers, but residents of Southern states who knowingly provide them with guns to be resold in our city.
“But to deter those who stand to make tens of thousands of dollars by selling large quantities of firearms, we must enhance the penalties they face. Currently, whether a defendant sells 10 firearms or 10,000, the penalty is the same: a class B felony. Today I am asking the New York State legislature to create a new A-1 felony, Operating as a Major Firearms Trafficker, for those who illegally sell or possess 20 or more firearms. Modeled after New York’s existing – and proven – Drug Kingpin statute, our proposed Gun Kingpin statute is necessary to put wholesale, illegal weapons dealers out of business.”
“Illegal firearms like these fuel the very violence in our streets we seek to combat,” said Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. “As alleged, Abdul Davis is responsible for selling more than six dozen firearms in more than 26 separate transactions on the streets of Manhattan. I commend the investigators of the Firearms Investigations Unit and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for dismantling this firearms ring.”
