Following the story
Dayton Daily News reporters examined dozens of federal court documents and police reports and interviewed witnesses for a March 17 story about the violent first two months of the year in Dayton. This story follows the federal indictment process of four suspects.
Four Dayton men have been federally indicted on drug and weapons charges who police say are related to quieting a violent stretch of shootingsearly this year.
The men indicted in Ohio Southern District Court in Dayton are Wesley Pope, Kenneth Wynn, Christopher Palmer and Phillip Parks.
The first two months of 2013 saw 11 homicides and as many drive-by shootings into homes in Dayton. And while police haven’t disclosed what, if any, clear links, the arrests have to a downturn in violence, authorities have said the federal prosecution has helped.
The uptick from Jan. 1 until Feb. 24, which saw the deaths of 10 of the victims, followed a sharp drop in city shootings and murders in 2012 after three years of coordinated gang and criminal group violence suppression by the Community Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence, or CIRGV and a federal anti-gang task force.
The program merges community outreach with crime targeting and includes Dayton Police, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Trotwood Police, the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, the U.S. Attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Court documents show a federal grand jury determined probable cause that Pope, 20, was trafficking heroin and used a Ruger Red Hawk .44 Magnum in the furtherance of the crime.
Parks, 24, was indicted for having a 9mm Taurus handgun in violation of a previous felony conviction for the illegal conveyance of cocaine onto the grounds of a detention facility. Parks has been listed a suspect in a November residence shooting at 1801 Tennyson Ave. where three children lived.
Wynn, 26, was indicted for trafficking heroin and using a Colt .223 semi-automatic rifle and Glock .45-caliber handgun in the furtherance of the crime. Wynn is not supposed to have weapons because of earlier heroin possession felonies.
Both Wynn and Palmer, 25, were indicted for attempting to alter, destroy, mutilate and conceal a substance containing heroin for use in an official proceeding.
Palmer, who is scheduled to make an appearance in federal court on Friday, also is indicted for heroin trafficking, having weapons under disability and receiving a Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun through interstate commerce.
Lt. Col. Bob Chabali, assistant Dayton police chief, said “the message is out” to other violent types because of the federal prosecution.
“We have recovered weapons, we’ve made arrests, we’ve recovered drugs and I think everybody and anybody in the region benefits from these type of suspects being arrested, especially charged in the federal arena,” Chabali told the Dayton Daily News last month.
About the Author