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75¢MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2010

Icy roads won’t be cleared soon, A3Lions hang on to beat Packers, C1

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“I CAN’T IMAGINE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO BE A KID AND NOT GET ANYTHING FOR CHRISTMAS. IT’D BE

NICE TO THINK THAT SOME CHILDREN OUT THERE WON’T HAVE TO IMAGINE IT EITHER.”

SANTA GIRLS: WHY I GIVE

PRESS PHOTO/KATY BATDORFF

WHY DO YOU GIVE?E-mail your Santa Claus Girls memories to [email protected].

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.

Nov. 7, 2004: Two men are wounded outside the Howlin' Moon Saloon, 141 28th St. SE. Police find .380 casings, but no gun.

Sept. 18, 2005: Shots are fired into a house at 1021 Adams St. SE. Ballistics tests indicate it is the same weapon used in the four previous shootings.

Sept. 10, 2005: College student Torrence Hopson, 21, is fatally shot during a robbery at Commerce Avenue SE and Wealthy Street. A suspect is convicted, but the gun never recovered.

June 1, 2005: A group accosts a teen and her male friend outside Grace Christian Reformed Church, 100 Buckley St. SE. They hear gunshots and laughter while fleeing in their car.

Aug. 21, 2005: Five shots are fired outside the Orbit Room, 2525 Lake Eastbrook Blvd. SE, striking a man once in the back. The shooter is sent to prison. The gun is not found.

One gun, five shootingsBallistics tests show five separate shooting incidents, including a homicide, are linked to a single gun that remains at large.

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T.G.I. Fridays downtown will host a “bartender flare” exhibition fundraiser at 8 p.m. Saturday, with a portion of proceeds going to the Santa Claus Girls. Also, for any donations all day to the Press-sponsored charity, customers get a free dessert or appetizer card. Said bar manager Phil Hoffman:

BY JOHN AGAR

THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS

GRAND RAPIDS — The handgun had already been involved in three

shootings before Torrence Hopson, a Grand Rapids college student, was shot in the neck and killed for $10 in his pocket.

Eight days later, a drive-by shooter used the same gun to fi re into a house on Adams Street SE.

The gun is still on the streets. How it got there and where it is now is anybody’s guess. But ballistic tests and modern science provide a gripping portrait of its violent past.

Spent cartridges and bullets entered into a computer database have linked the gun to fi ve crimes over a bloody 10-month stretch. Three incidents were less than a month apart.

Then, nothing for the past five years.

“If you’ve got a gun that’s got a mur-der on it, you’re getting rid of that gun,” said retired Grand Rapids Police Detective Phil Betz, who solved Hop-son’s 2005 death.

“That gun now is really, really hot.”

Every gun seized by Grand Rapids police is immediately submitted to state police for testing in its Integrat-ed Ballistic Identifi cation System.

Police also enter serial numbers into eTrace, a program run by the Bu-reau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It tells when and where a handgun was made, shipped and sold.

IBIS is similar to a fi ngerprint da-tabase. Digital photos of fi red bul-lets and cartridge cases are taken by computerized equipment. The system fi nds and ranks possible matches.

Analysts then compare “hits” on a computer, verifying similarities, be-fore putting the evidence under a mi-croscope. That’s how the fi ve Grand Rapids shootings were linked.

One state police lab is in Grand Rapids, at 720 Fuller Ave. NE, but there is concern that guns recovered farther away are brought there infre-quently, particularly by departments that have long drives.

Local police did not want to criti-cize other agencies, but some private-ly worried critical evidence may not be available for serious crimes.

“A lot of police departments re-ceive guns and don’t trace them, that

is true,” said Benjamin Hayes, chief of the ATF’s National Tracing Center in West Virginia.

In some cases, the objective is sim-ply to get a gun off the street.

“If I’m a police offi cer (and) take a gun, the guy’s arrested — I don’t really care where the gun came from. I have the (suspect), the gun. I have a lot of things going on,” Hayes said.

He and local police acknowledge smaller departments also have cost considerations. Driving a gun to the lab could take half an offi cer’s shift.

“A lot of departments don’t have a lot of people,” Hayes said. “Every police department is different.”

Still, the IBIS search does not cost local police agencies, although there are guidelines for submitting guns to testing.

“We offer the service to any governmental law enforcement agency; they decide if the ser-

SEE GUNS, A8

SUNDAY: A Press investigation shows how legitimate guns end up on the street — and get used in violent crimes.

TODAY: One gun has been used in five shootings in Grand Rapids — and it’s still on the streets.

TUESDAY: Ride along with Grand Rapids officers on a federal task force aimed at getting guns off the streets.

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.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

GUNS GONE BAD: A PRESS INVESTIGATION

MAKING THE ROUNDSA SINGLE WEAPON’S ODYSSEY: ONE DEAD, THREE WOUNDED, TWO CLOSE CALLS

REPORT ILLEGAL GUNS: 616-774-2345

Gun: Taurus Millennium PTIII9 mm Luger

Disappeared: Shortly after bought. April 12, 2001.

Time to crime: Three years, eight months, 11 days.

Details: The gun was one of two used in a violent rampage on Dec. 12. 2004, that led to a police officer’s shooting. The gun that shot Officer Jason Lowrie remains at large.

TIME TO CRIME

READ THE STORY BEHIND THE GUN: A8

The gun used by an accomplice of the man who shot Officer Jason Lowrie.

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. BY RICK WILSON

THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS

GRAND RAPIDS — In what legal experts say could be a precedent-set-ting case, state offi cials recently an-swered a lawsuit fi led by Kent County alleging the Michigan Department of Human Services violated state law in refusing to pay for services required under a 2008 federal court order.

The 2008 Children’s Rights settle-ment required the state to increase monitoring of children in foster care after a series of high-profi le abuse cases, including the 2005 murder of 7-year-old Ricky Holland by his adopt-ed mother. The settlement reached by the state without input from Michigan counties will cost Kent County tax-payers an estimated $4 million yearly, county offi cials allege.

The legal action comes as an inde-pendent agency appointed to monitor the state’s moves toward compliance with the settlement issued a report last week critical of state efforts so far. It said while some progress has been made, “DHS leadership has increas-ingly fallen behind and, worse, lost ground on important fronts.”

The group is considering whether to ask a federal judge to appoint a receiver to take over the state’s child welfare system until improvements are made but, at this point, is will-ing to give Gov.-elect Rick Snyder’s administration a chance to make the court-ordered reforms.

Among the shortcomings cited in the report are continued high case loads and a failure to recruit and re-tain enough foster homes.

The Children’s Rights settlement requires smaller case loads for case workers and increases age limits under which county officials must provide certain services for children, among other things.

Dan Ophoff, Kent County’s in-house counsel, said offi cials here have tried unsuccessfully for two years to convince the state DHS offi cials they should pay for the additional services. Kent County claims the added moni-toring reached under the Children’s Rights settlement violates the 1978 Headlee Amendment, which says the state cannot mandate additional services without providing funding for them.

SEE MANDATES, A2

Kent pushes

back against

mandate Suit says state is obligated to fund foster care services

GIFTS THAT BUILD THEIR BRAINSGames, trips, lessons can be fun and open children’s minds. B1

was

TIME TO CRIME: STILL UNKNOWN

TIME TO CRIME: 3 YEARS,8 MONTHS, 11 DAYS

YOU CAN HELP

A8 MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2010 GUNS GONE BAD: A PRESS INVESTIGATION THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS

BY JOHN AGAR

THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS

GRAND RAPIDS — The 9 mm Luger was stolen soon after it was purchased for $500 at Al & Bob’s Sports.

“I don’t think I ever shot a round out of it,” its owner recalled.

He didn’t know what ultimately happened to his gun. If it was used in a signifi cant crime, the 64-year-old fi gured he would have heard.

He hadn’t.Three years, eight months and 11

days after the owner’s daughter stole the Luger during troubled times, Mi-chael Jay Jackson entered a home on Grand Rapids’ Southwest Side. The 9 mm Luger was in his hand. With him was Otis Nelson, also armed.

In a violent rampage, the two robbed a family before Nelson shot Grand Rapids Police Officer Jason Lowrie as he and Jackson fl ed.

“It hurts me,” the gun’s owner, said when The Press informed him recent-ly of its fate. “Especially since the gun I bought was used in a crime where a police offi cer was injured.”

He knows that side of the story, too. His son, a Saginaw police offi cer, was seriously injured in a confrontation with a suspect. A back injury proved so debilitating the son had to retire.

“My son, he wanted to be a police offi cer since he was 5 years old,” the man said. “He would not have retired. (Saginaw is) taking real good care of him, but he did not want his career to end.”

Lowrie, who joined the Grand Rap-ids department in 2000, retired this year. He declined to be interviewed.

Lowrie responded to a Dec. 22, 2004, report of armed robbers hold-ing a family hostage at 1951 Francis Ave. SW when the robbers ran out a back door.

He was shot in the shoulder, break-ing ribs and puncturing a lung, and in the chest, where he had a bullet-proof vest. Lowrie, on one knee, re-turned gunfi re. Nelson fl ed. Jackson got away, too, but dropped the Luger near a back fence.

Jackson is serving 40 years to life. Nelson is serving four life sentences.

The gun’s owner was living on Leonard Street NE when the Luger and other items turned up missing shortly after he bought the weapon on April 12, 2001.

He contacted police, and his daugh-ter was arrested. He said they both have put the diffi cult times behind them, and asked he not be identifi ed, to protect her.

She told him the gun had been “sold on the street.”

The man keeps guns for protection. He said he is a responsible gun owner, and keeps them locked up.

He would also like his Luger back, he said.

CONTINUED FROM A1

vice is of benefi t to them.” said state police Lt. James Pierson, in charge of the Fuller Avenue lab.

Because most fi rearms stay within a certain area, guns discovered here are entered into a regional database. But the search can expand, Pierson said.

“We literally can go around the country by searching different re-gions,” he said.

But if authorities are getting more sophisticated, there is evidence those with illegal guns are too.

Nicholas Roti is chief of the orga-nized crime division in Chicago, where 10,000 guns are recovered every year. He said some gangs have gone back to revolvers from semi-automatics, like the 9mm Glock. That’s because revolvers do not eject casings.

“They basically stopped leaving evidence behind,” he said.

Grand Rapids detective Sgt. Terry McGee said detectives recently dis-cussed if the trend playing out here.

Ashleigh Vogel, an IBIS technolo-gist, said the database continues to grow after its start nine years ago. The ATF plans upgrades that will include 3D images, she said.

“We’ve had cases from the lakeshore communities link up to the Grand Rapids area,” Vogel said. “It shows a pattern. You’re able to say, ‘Follow the hit pattern.’ Police could put ad-ditional resources in those areas.”

She said she gets no “CSI”-style fl ashing light when she gets a hit, but “it’s still pretty cool.”

Pierson agreed.“I’ve been doing this for 20 years.

The technology we have, it still awes me. There’s no shortage of guns to be found — that’s the problem.”

E-mail: [email protected]

BY JOHN AGAR

THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS

GRAND RAPIDS — As her son lay dying after being shot in a hold-up, Theresa Smith held close at his bedside.

She knew he didn’t have long. He no longer breathed on his own.

“I said, ‘I love you so much,’” she re-called recently, her voice quavering.

“I kind of apologized for anything I hadn’t done as a mother. I let him know I knew he wasn’t coming back to me.”

Then she told her son, a singer and a Grand Rapids Community College student: “You are going to be in God’s choir now.”

Torrence Hopson, 21, was killed by a man looking for cash for the bar. He took $10, then shot Hopson in the neck on Sept. 10, 2005.

Hopson died a week later.Police arrested the killer, who is

serving life in prison, but the gun has not been found. Ballistics have linked it to four other shooting incidents.

Smith said these tragedies play out far too often, particularly in urban areas where illegal weapons seem to abound.

“There’s too many guns, and too many people that don’t care have guns,” she said.

It has been a hard recovery, she said. Her husband, Leslie, struggles

with their son’s loss. He has a hard time talking about it.

She knows it is es-pecially hard on their other son, Ammin, now 21. He is the same age as Tory when he died, and looked up to his big brother.

“When (Ammin) graduated from high school, it really hurt him a lot. He wanted his brother to be there,” Smith said.

“I said, ‘He’s here in spirit, and proud of you.’”

She thinks of her son often, es-pecially now. The bright, colorful lights of Christmas always made him happy.

She wished others appreciated life like her son did, and wondered why her son’s killer was even free

that night at Commerce Avenue and Wealthy Street SE.

David Blair was released from pris-on a year earlier, after serving nearly 14 years for beating a man to death in 1990 with a bottle of wine.

Smith isn’t opposed to legal own-ership of guns. But she has heard

too many kids talking about getting a gun.

She couldn’t believe the gun that killed her son had been used in mul-tiple crimes.

“Holy smokes. That is what I’m talking about. It’s a free-for-all out there.”

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Tracing a gunBullets fired from guns and their shell casings leave unique marks that can link a firearm to more than one crime. Recovered weapons can also be traced to their origin. Here's how the two systems work.

IBIS (Integrated Ballistic Identification System)

eTrace (Electronic Tracing System)

SOURCE: Michigan State Police; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

PRESS GRAPHIC/ED RIOJAS

1. Computerized imaging equipment captures digital photographs of fired bullets and cartridge cases.

1. Police recover a gun at a crime scene or during an arrest.

2. The gun's make, model and serial number is reported using eTrace. The Internet-based system submits the information to the National Tracing Center of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

3. ATF checks the serial number against its gun-sale records, or those of gun makers, wholesalers and retailers.

4. The last legal owner is identified and police can then investigate any relationship to the crime. Often, the guns have been reported stolen years earlier.

2. The images are stored in a database and electronically compared to one another in search of "high confidence hits."

3. A forensic examiner conducts a comparison of the hits to confirm similarities on a computer monitor.

4. If a match is found, the images are com-pared with actual evidence by an exam-iner on a microscope for a final determination.

5. Evidence connected to two or more shootings is assigned a unique identifier for future reference.

‘TOO MANY PEOPLE THAT DON’T CARE HAVE GUNS’

PRESS PHOTO/T.J. HAMILTON

Slain for $10: Theresa Smith holds a photo of her son Torrance Hopson, who was killed at 21 with a gun that remains unrecovered.

David Blair

Got a tip? Call it in

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:

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

PRESS FILE PHOTO

On exhibit: Grand Rapids Police Officer Jason Lowrie points to blood stains on his vest during his 2006 testimony in the Otis Nelson trial.

MOTHER WHO LOST SON SHARES CONCERN FOR OTHERS

Accomplice’s gun traces to family woes

Michael Jackson Otis Nelson

REPORT ILLEGAL GUNS: 616-774-2345

GUNSFEDERAL SEARCH IS FREE

TO LOCAL POLICE

Firing away: Trooper Russell Karsten, left, fires a weapon to produce a bullet for testing at the Michigan State Police Grand Rapids Lab Firearms Unit. At right, IBS technologist Ashleigh Vogel examines results.

COURTESY PHOTOS