‘A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS’ It’s about so much more than a scrawny tree. After 45 years, this beloved holiday special still touches audiences. B1
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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2010
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GUNS GONE BAD: A PRESS INVESTIGATION
State’s health readiness LOCAL/FEDERAL EFFORT TARGETS ‘WORST OF THE WORST’ rating slips
STREET SWEEPERS
All clear: Grand Rapids Police Officer Chad McKersie, right, and an agent for the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives make contact with a resident in November.
for suspicious behavior. He knows a lot of people. THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS “That kid will run if we stop him,” RAND RAPIDS — His hand he says. On this day, he has an agent from on his firearm, Grand Rapids Police Officer Chad McKer- the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tosie talks to the young driver bacco, Firearms and Explosives as a he has just pulled over for partner. The bold, yellow ATF on the speeding. Nearby, a federal agent back of the agent’s jacket draws attenscans the car’s passengers, his hand tion, McKersie said. near his own gun. “Why is the ATF with you?” people McKersie just tells the driver to sometimes ask. slow down. The agent, who requested anonymIn this Southeast Side neighbor- ity, said the bad guys know why he hood troubled by drugs and violence, is here, and he knows what they are McKersie keeps watch — and some thinking: “They don’t want to see the feds prosecute for a gun.” keep watch on him. He drives past gang graffiti on buildThis local-federal partnership, ings and slips through alleys looking SEE STREETS, A7
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REPORT ILLEGAL GUNS: 616-774-2345
Report cites declining spending on public health
TIME TO CRIME
THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
The police term refers to how long a weapon disappears before resurfacing in the wrong hands. For each day of this series, gun traces and Press research detail the firearms’ stories.
PRESS PHOTO/DARREN BREEN
BY JOHN AGAR
A .38 Special found after it was fired in Grand Rapids.
Gun: .38 Special Colt Cobra, six-shot revolver.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
Disappeared: Stolen on or about Jan. 1, 2000, from a home on Knapp Street NE in Grand Rapids.
SUNDAY: A Press investigation shows how legitimate guns end up on the street — and get used in violent crimes. MONDAY: One gun has been used in five shootings in Grand Rapids — and it’s still on the streets.
Time to crime: Six years, 11 months, 13 days.
TODAY: Ride along with Grand Rapids officers on a federal task force aimed at getting guns off the streets.
Details: Recovered by Grand Rapids Police Officer Robert Kozminski Dec. 14, 2006.
WEDNESDAY: A look at some gun stores that have been hit by thieves repeatedly — and the surprising places some of those guns have turned up.
READ THE STORY BEHIND THE GUN: A7
For more about this special Press partnership with Silent Observer, see A7
BY KYLA KING
Cuts in the state’s public health budget are threatening the nearly 10 years of progress that Michigan has made since the 9/11 attacks in being able to prevent or respond to a bioterrorism or public health emergency, according to a watchdog group. A report released today shows Michigan scores eight out of 10 key indicators of public health preparedness. That’s better than 16 other MORE states and Washington, D.C., that How all 50 states scored a seven or stand, A2 a six out of 10. But Michigan’s CONNECT current position is a drop from For a full list of scores 2008, when it and indicators, go to scored nine out healthyamericans.org of 10. The study is the eighth annual “Ready or Not? Protecting the Public from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism” report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “This year, the Great Recession is taking its toll on emergency health preparedness,” said Jeff Levi, executive director of The Trust for America’s Health. “Unfortunately, the recent and continued budget cuts will exacerbate the vulnerable areas in the U.S. crisis response capabilities and have the potential to reverse the progress we have made over the last decade.” The report shows that while 17 states increased or maintained funding levels for public health services in the last two budget years, 33 states decreased that funding, including Michigan, which had an 11.2 percent cut. The state funding cuts are exacerbated by a 27 percent cut in federal funding for health preparedness. Scores were based on funding commitment, health information technology, electronic surveillance, incidence response, emergency operations, foodborne disease detection, v
SEE HEALTH, A2
SANTA GIRLS: WHY I GIVE WHY DO YOU GIVE?
Rather than mail gifts to her five siblings, who are scattered across the country, Carol Teneyck, of Grand Rapids’ Southeast Side, donated $125.
“WE GREW UP IN A WONDERFUL NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE WE ALL TOOK CARE OF EACH OTHER. THIS FEELS LIKE I’M TAKING CARE OF NEIGHBORS.”
©2010, The Grand Rapids Press
Last local furrier, with lineage of more than a century, will close next year BY JULIA BAUER
E-mail your Santa Claus Girls memories to localnews@grpress.com. Donate easily online or learn more at santaclausgirls.org. Santa Claus Girls is a Press-sponsored charity that, since 1908, has aimed to ensure no child in Kent County is without a Christmas gift. Last year, thousands donated $179,504, and 13,460 children received presents. See page A2 for ways to help and today’s list of donors.
PRESS PHOTO/EMILY ZOLADZ
Advice/Puzzles ............B2 Business ..................... A12 Classified Ads ..............C7 Comics......................... B4
Area fur trade ends
INDEX Daily Briefing.............A14 Deaths ......................... A8 Lottery..........................A2 Opinions.....................A15
Region..........................A3 Sports........................... C1 TV/Weather ................ B6 Your Life .......................B1
THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
EAST GRAND RAPIDS — Hundreds of fur coats, stoles and jackets are selling at bargain-basement prices this month as Day Furs, the latest in a long line of West Michigan furriers, prepares to close. By early next year, Day Furs, 660 Croswell Ave. SE, is expected to put a wrap on a furrier line dating to 1903. Its latest owner, Kevin Day, runs the corporation from Carmel, Ind., and also has fur salons in Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio. “He’s just decided to move out of Michigan,” local manager Sharon Jensen said Monday.
TIMELINE A piece of history Day Furs is part of a long line of Grand Rapids furriers: 1903 — Rason and Dows furriers open on Ionia Avenue near Monroe, later based at 96 Monroe. 1943 — Alice Jane Dows Inc. acquires furrier business. 1946 — Business moves to Fulton Street at Jefferson Avenue. 1975 — Larry Leigh buys Alice Jane Dows store, moves it to 60 Monroe Ave. NW. 1980 — Leigh buys site at 2175 Wealthy St. SE in East Grand Rapids for Leigh’s Fur Salon. 2003 — Kevin Day, an Indianapolis-area furrier, buys Leigh’s Fur Salon, changes name to Day Furs. December — Day decides to pull out of Michigan. Early 2011 — East Grand Rapids store expected to close.
SEE FURRIER, A2
Snyder, Granholm name panel, A12 ‘Leaders,’ ‘Legends’ in Big Ten, C1
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THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
GUNS GONE BAD: A PRESS INVESTIGATION
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2010
A7
TIME TO CRIME: 6 YEARS, 11 MONTHS, 13 DAYS
YEARS OF WORRY TALE OF TWO GUNS BEGINS WITH AN UNREPORTED THEFT to a domestic-violence call on July 8, 2007. Six years is not a long time for a gun to disappear on the RAND streets. The average is twice RAPIDS — that in Michigan, federal records show. John Sobotta It is not known where John always Sobotta’s .38 special spent those six years. Internal powondered — and lice reports and federal records worried — about the show where it ended up. guns stolen a decade It was near ago while he stayed freezing and overcast, just at a friend’s house on b e fo re 10 : 3 0 Knapp Street NE in p.m., the night Grand Rapids. K o z m i n ski recovered His German Luger turned up the stolen a year later, after a parolee shot Robert himself in the leg. six- shooter. Kozminski The other, a .38 special CoHe saw Anbra Colt, was found by Grand thony Q. McKnight, then 23, Rapids Police Officer Robert fleeing the area near Bradford Kozminski, who heard shots Street NE and Clancy Avenue, and arrested a suspect running where shots had been fired at with a gun in his coat. a house. McKnight was holdThat was Dec. 14, 2006. It ing the right side of his chest, was one of Kozminski’s last the tell-tale sign of a concealed felony arrests. weapon. Seven months later, he was Kozminski chased McKnight, fatally shot while responding also known as T-Dog, Joe West BY JOHN AGAR
THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
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PRESS PHOTO/MARK COPIER
Back in his hands: John Sobotta holds the Luger that was stolen from his collection and later recovered.
and Money Green, among his half-dozen aliases. He lost track when McKnight hid between cars in a parking lot, spotting him when he ran again. McKnight no longer held his hands on his chest. Kozminski ordered him to stop. The gun was found under a car. McKnight told Kozminski he only clutched his chest to hold his cigarettes and cell phone, not to hide a weapon. McKnight claimed someone else actually shot at him. “While on the way to jail, McKnight continuously swore at me and advised he was going to sue me,” Kozminski reported. McKnight was sent to prison for 57 months, where he remains today in the mediumsecurity Federal Correctional Institution in Greenville, Ill. Like many in Grand Rapids hit with gun charges, he was prosecuted in federal court, where sentencing guidelines typically far exceed what would be expected in state court. Sobotta, who inherited the
.38 revolver from his father, didn’t report the guns stolen until contacted by a federal agent after a felon accidentally shot himself in the leg. “He wanted to know how it got out,” Sobotta recalled. He’d kept the guns in a safe, but when he moved briefly out of his home, he hid them in a friend’s house. There were no signs of forced entry, and he believes someone there knew he had the guns. His father, Anselm Sobotta, owned Unique Cleaners & Dryers and armed himself to protect his business. He sat up at night inside his store on Grandville Avenue SW near Franklin Street during the 1967 riots. A business across the street was firebombed. The son, a Vietnam War veteran and a hunter and target shooter, always feared the lost guns would wind up in the wrong hands. “I sure did, all the time,” he said. “It just was horrible, really, because of my stupidity. That would weigh heavily on my mind.”
YOU CAN HELP Got a tip? Call it in
REPORT ILLEGAL GUNS: 616-774-2345 STREET FEDERAL GUN CHARGES ‘GET A PRETTY BIG BANG’
To help make our communities safer, The Press is joining with Silent Observer to help fund a gun-tip hotline. You can help in two ways:
CONTINUED FROM A1
begun last spring, is working to get illegal guns off the streets across West Michigan. “The community officers have expertise in working in the neighborhoods and what’s going on there,” police Capt. Eric Payne said. “The ATF has the expertise in guns.” Grand Rapids is one of numerous cities — including Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Battle Creek and Lansing — taking part in Project Safe Neighborhoods, a nationwide effort to cut gun violence. Critical to the project is federal prosecution of felons with guns. The effort targets “the worst of the worst,” ATF spokesman Donald Dawkins said, especially offenders he says have become “desperate, more brazen” in recent years. Penalties are typically far more severe than in state court. “We have been fortunate to get some of our more violent offenders sent to federal prison,” said Grand Rapids Police Capt. Jeff Hertel, in charge of the Major Case Team. Adds Lt. Scott Merlo of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, “We charge everybody we can through PSN. All the gun cases, they look at federal to see if it meets criteria. They get a pretty big bang.” The average gun-crime sentence in the U.S. District Court’s Western District has been 61/2 years since the project began in 2000. Nationwide, gun crimes prosecuted at the federal level have increased 73 percent in that time. One of those is Keith Ira Cunningham, alias “Pumpkin Man,” a 1999 Creston High School football star turned leader of the Wealthy Street gang. Cunningham is two years into a seven-year federal sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Police say the gang terrorized Southeast Side neighborhoods as part of a “violent criminal enterprise.” While suspected in serious crimes, he is locked up for a loaded .357-caliber Smith & Wesson he tossed while running from police. Federal prosecutors have an advantage over state prosecutors. The federal system has grand juries, which can compel witnesses to testify in secret — under threat of jail if they refuse. But prosecutors and defense lawyers acknowledge it’s the threat of long sentences — served in out-of-state federal prisons where family visits are few and far between — that causes concern on the street. “Basically, primarily, it’s the penalty,” Assistant U.S.
OFFERING A TIP If you have information about a lost or stolen gun, call Silent Observer at 616-774-2345. Tipsters stay strictly anonymous. The hotline will pay $250 to callers with information leading to the arrest of someone with an illegal gun.
MAKING A DONATION If you would like to donate, checks can be made out to Silent Observer, earmarked for the “gun-tip hotline” and mailed to: Silent Observer, Box 230321, Grand Rapids MI 49523 Or go online to: bit.ly/SOhotline
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PRESS PHOTO/DARREN BREEN
Traffic stop: GRPD Officer Chad McKersie and an ATF agent check the occupants of a car they pulled over recently in Grand Rapids.
Attorney John Bruha said. “If you have three prior felonies and get caught with a firearm, you’re looking at a mandatory 15 years in prison.” His office screens gun cases and targets the “more dangerous felons,” maybe 100 a year, he said. Raymond Kent, the federal public defender, said sentencing guidelines between state and federal courts can vary significantly, with state guidelines calling for probation or jail and federal guidelines calling for long prison stretches. If a defendant has a couple of prior drug felonies, then gets busted for a gun, federal guidelines start at 57 to 71 months — before other variables are considered. “The federal system treats the possession and use of firearms in commission of crimes very harshly,” Kent said. Rarely, he added, does the federal government have a weak case. Mark Worch, a Grand Rapids police detective, has been assigned to work with the ATF the past four years. He reviews gun cases and enters all recovered firearms into a federal gun-tracking database as part of the joint effort. “I think there has been a big impact,” he said. “I would say that if I was gone tomorrow.” He said those convicted of federal gun laws know they’re looking at at least five years in prison, and worry they’ll serve time somewhere else, such as West Virginia. The recent afternoon that McKersie, the community officer, was patrolling with an ATF agent, he stopped a man walking in the street. It’s a potential violation. With the man’s consent, he
patted him down for weapons or drugs. The man had neither, and walked away. No guns were found this day, but McKersie is always on the alert. “When you pull over a car, you’re looking for anything, gestures and movement, what the other people are doing. If things don’t add up, it’s usually for a reason.” Not long ago, he pulled over a car and smelled marijuana smoke. While dealing with the driver, his partner saw a gun on the floorboard. “It was the middle of the day,” McKersie says. “We deal with people who don’t believe they have to play by the rules.” E-mail: jagar@grpress.com
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