Five arrested in East St. Louis following a city-wide sweep for guns
Five people are in East St. Louis jail cells pending charges, after they were arrested over the weekend in connection with gun possession.
A law enforcement task force sweep of the city’s “high call” areas led the arrests in addition to the seizure of six illegal guns and 695 grams of pot.
“It was a busy but productive weekend for us,” said East St. Louis Police Sgt. Cantrell Patterson. “We made several arrests and got multiple illegal weapons off the streets of East St. Louis.”
Patterson said the task force included East St. Louis police officers and auxiliary officers. They patrolled the city with sweeps of some its “high call” areas.
According to Patterson, those areas included the 1000 block of Bond, 11th Street and Market Avenue, the John DeShields Housing complex, 15th and Tudor, Lincoln Park Avenue, 1800 block of Russel Avenue,, the Gompers Homes located at 450 N. sixth Street, the Winstanley Avenue area, the Roosevelt Homes, 800 block of N. 72nd Street, 900 block of n. 84th Street, 800 and 8200 blocks of State Street, and 900 block of North 84th Street.
Police seized loaded hand guns, loaded assault rifles, loaded magazines. Patterson did not have an exact count of the number of illegal guns that were seized. None of those arrested had a valid Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card.
“We made five arrests. We collected loaded magazines, an AR-15 assault rifle and several pistols one with an extended clip capable of holding 30 rounds,” Patterson said.
East St. Louis annually has one of the nation’s highest murder rates. Between 2000 to 2018 there were 453 murders within the 14-mile borders, 83% of which were gunshot related, according to a Belleville News-Democrat investigation published in April of 2019. During the same period, the city saw an average of nearly 100 non-lethal shootings.
Last year, there were 34 murders in the city.
“Our ultimate goal is to send a message to the people who are breaking the law,” Patterson said. “We want them to know we are going to to be out here looking at them and anyone who is breaking the law will be arrested.”
Patterson commended the officers’ work and called on residents who see people engaged in illegal activity to call the East St. Louis police department before it leads to something serious.
“I want to commend the dedicated men and women of the East St. Louis Police Department who risk their lives daily trying to clean up the street corners where illegal drug sales and other illegal activities occur,” he said. “Often times citizens complain and that’s fine, but the officers also deserve praise for the work they do to make the streets of East St. Louis safer. If we help to save one life or steer one person the right way, then we are doing our job. We end our citizens to support us.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 9:52 AM.
