News from the Northwest:
A baggage handler who worked at Portland International Airport admitted Wednesday in federal court to stealing six guns from checked bags over several weeks last year.
Deshawn Antonio Kelly, 27, pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of a stolen gun before U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon. The fifth count covered taking two guns on one day.
Kelly acknowledged he stole the guns from five people who checked their bags at the Portland airport last August and September. All of them reported their handguns missing after getting their luggage back at their final destinations.
The guns were stolen on Aug. 19, Aug. 29, Sept. 9, Sept. 11 and Sept. 17: three 9mm pistols, two .40-caliber pistols and one .45-caliber pistol, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Hannah Horsley.
Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors would have presented the court with surveillance tapes and witness statements to support the charges.
Following reports of stolen guns from airport baggage, a Portland police detective placed replica guns in bags twice — on Sept. 11 and six days later — as bait to determine who was swiping them and narrowed it to Kelly, according to a probable cause affidavit initially filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
The second time, Kelly was seen taking a bait bag and a passenger’s bag with a gun and later putting them back. The police bag had damaged locks, the affidavit said, and looked as if someone tried to pry the locks off the gun case.
Investigators searched Kelly’s home and found five of the six guns reported missing, and Kelly admitted taking them, the affidavit said.
Kelly previously had been convicted of attempted possession of a rented or leased motor vehicle, a felony that barred him from having or handling guns.
I don’t lie to y’all. It’s like I’ve said before.
“Let’s face it, folks. Since we are dropping off the luggage and we are picking it up, the only necessity for the luggage to be locked up is what happens behind the wall. The only good of locking up the gun is theft by airport employees. We know it, the TSA knows it, and the airlines know it. It’s the truth. None of this has anything to do with security. It’s all about airport theft by airline or airport employees.”
Prior: Baggage Handler Steals Firearms In Austin Airport
