Should Lower Manhattan Visitors Be Offered a Trigger Warning?
In some respects, David Morris probably resembled a typical tourist visiting Lower Manhattan. He took in a few sights. And he splurged on a handful of decent meals, the price for which would have caused indigestion in his native Georgia.
But Mr. Morris was different from other visitors in several key respects. First, he appeared to enjoy the community on his March 28 visit so much that he returned on April 18. And then came back again on May 9. Second, he apparently had an unconventional strategy for financing his travels. He brought with him some expensive merchandise, hoping to find interested buyers in New York. But the third and most important difference about David Morris was the circle of acquaintances he struck up while touring New York. His new friends included several undercover agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), along with NYPD detectives assigned to the Joint Firearms Task Force, an interagency partnership between local and federal law enforcement that conducts long-term investigations into illegal firearms trafficking.
How Mr. Morris first came to the attention of the Joint Task Force first has not been disclosed by federal prosecutors, who announced that he had been arrested in New York on Friday. During his two earlier visits, they allege, Mr. Morris provided undercover officers with a small “sample” of cocaine, while assuring them he had large quantities to sell. He also indicated that he could deliver significant numbers of firearms on his next trip, charges filed recently in the Lower Manhattan federal courthouse contend. In fact, prosecutors say, Mr. Morris shared that he was part of a Georgia-based gang that has been selling firearms for ten years, while also boasting about his access to machine gun conversion devices, which are used to transform semiautomatic pistols into fully automatic weapons.
On his third (and, as it turned out, final) trip to Lower Manhattan, Mr. Morris proved to be as good as his word, federal prosecutors allege. On Friday, when he returned to New York, he met his new friends in front of the Manhattan Mini Storage building at the intersection of South Street and Catherine Slip. He promptly handed over five plastic bags filled with cocaine, along with 47 handguns. (All of them, apart from two revolvers, were semiautomatic pistols.) As a bonus, he also brought along several hundred rounds of ammunition.
Seconds after this handoff, more than a dozen NYPD detectives and federal agents swarmed Mr. Morris and took him into custody. Within hours, he had been arraigned in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said, “Gun traffickers fuel violence in our communities. David Morris trafficked illegal firearms, ammunition, and narcotics into our City – but our brave officers were one step ahead, stopping these weapons and drugs from ever reaching the streets.”
Mr. Morris has been charged with one count each of unlicensed dealing of firearms, firearms trafficking, and using or carrying a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. If he is convicted, these crimes carry maximum penalties of five years, 15 years, and life in prison, respectively. Mr. Morris’s attorney did not return a call requesting comment.