Suspect helped arrange gun sale, authorities say
A third man was charged Saturday from a shootout in Gary last week during an undercover operation that injured an ATF agent and left another man dead.
Leondre Smith Jr., 29, of Homewood, Ill., was charged in Lake Superior Court with attempted unlawful transfer of a handgun, a level 5 felony, court records show.
Smith is scheduled June 20 for a formal appearance in Lake Superior Court, according to court records.
Smith joins Blake King, 19, of Chicago, and Bernard Graham, 25 of Calumet City, Ill., who
Charges for King and Graham include assaulting an ATF agent and using a weapon in the commission of a crime, according to a criminal complaint.
Graham turned himself in to authorities Saturday and is scheduled for a detention hearing Friday in federal court in Hammond, according to court records.
King is scheduled for his detention hearing Wednesday, court records show.
Smith brought two undercover ATF agents and their confidential informant to Gary on Thursday to illegally buy firearms from King, Graham and Raymon Truitt II, according to court records.
Truitt, 28, was killed in the
An ATF agent, who has not been identified “due to the nature of his work,” was shot in the chest and the arm but is expected to recover, said Special Agent in Charge Celinez Nunez, of the ATF’s Chicago Field Division.
When interviewed by investigators, Smith said that “he did not know a robbery was to take place and admitted that he stood to make $225 off the sale of the firearms,” according to an affidavit.
Smith and the confidential informant texted in the days leading up to the purchase from Truitt, who was Smith’s firearm provider, according to court records.
“He lives in Indiana, bro, there’s more guns floating around there then (sic) there is with us, bro,” Smith texted the confidential informant, according to 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,” according to a complaint.
The two agreed to meet Thursday morning 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 stated. 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 buy 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,” according to the complaint.
“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, according to the complaint, and the informant said, “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, according to the complaint.
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