ATF agent
was injured
in incident
A detention hearing was postponed for one of the men who was charged after a Gary shootout that injured an ATF agent and killed another man.
Blake King, 19, of Chicago, appeared briefly Wednesday morning in Hammond’s federal court with his court-appointed attorney, Matthew Soliday, for a hearing on whether King should remain in custody leading up to trial.
Two U.S. marshals sat behind King, who wore a gray hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants and handcuffs, as he whispered with Soliday before the hearing.
Soliday asked for the hearing to be continued, which Judge Andrew Rodovich granted. King’s detention hearing was reset for June 21, court records show.
King is one of three men
An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who has not been identified “due to the nature of his work” was shot in the chest and arm but is expected to recover, officials said.
Raymon Truitt II, 28, was killed in the shootout with undercover agents in the 500 block of Kentucky Avenue, U.S. Attorney Thomas Kirsch II said.
King and Bernard Graham, 25, of Calumet City, Ill., were charged last week in federal court on counts that include assaulting an ATF agent and using a weapon in the commission of a crime, according to a criminal complaint.
The “maximum potential penalties for those offenses is life imprisonment,” Kirsch said.
Kirsch said Friday that his team will present the case to a grand jury for indictments, and additional charges are possible.
Graham is scheduled for a detention hearing Friday in federal court, according to court records.
Smith is set for a formal appearance Wednesday in Lake Superior Court, according to court records.
Smith brought two undercover ATF agents and their confidential informant to Gary on June 7 to illegally buy firearms from King, Graham and Truitt, court records state.
Smith and the confidential informant texted in the days leading up to the purchase from Truitt, who was Smith’s firearm provider, court records state.
“He lives in Indiana, bro, there’s more guns floating around there then(sic) there is with us, bro,” Smith wrote in a text message to the confidential informant in court records.
Smith sent photos of three semi-automatic pistols, “one of which appeared to be loaded with an extended magazine and another with an attached flashlight,” a complaint states.
The two agreed to meet the morning of June 7 in the parking lot of a Hooters restaurant in Lansing, Ill., according to a complaint. The informant and the two undercover ATF agents followed Smith and arrived at the house on Kentucky Street shortly before noon, the complaint states. Truitt, Graham and King were waiting in front, according to the complaint.
Smith introduced the informant to Truitt as the undercover agents waited in a vehicle, and the informant said he had $2,000 to purchase the firearms, according to court documents. “Graham then lifted his shirt and displayed to the informant an unknown-caliber firearm in the waistline of his pants,” the complaint states. “Truitt asked the informant where the money was.”
The informant went to the undercover agents and retrieved money before returning to the men outside of the house, according to the complaint.
King handed the informant a bag, the complaint states, and the informant asked, “What’s in here?”
“The guns … what you want,” King said, according to the complaint.
The informant placed the bag on the ground and unzipped it to see inside, according to authorities.
“The bag contained kitchen pots and pans,” Kirsch said.
King pulled the informant’s shirt over his head as Truitt and Graham fired at the ATF agents in the vehicle, the complaint states.
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