Four held after guns taken from cop’s home

Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 1, 2004

Members of the Vicksburg Police Department, from left, Lt. Linda Hearn, Sgt. Virgil Woodall, Officer Brad Derrington, Investigator Randy Nailor and Detective Johnny Edwards remove guns found at 217 Hillside Drive after Wednesday’s burglary.(Meredith SpencerThe Vicksburg Post)

[7/1/04]Four people, including three teens, were in custody this morning after 40 weapons some antiques and some replicas and police equipment were stolen from a Vicksburg police sergeant’s home.

The teens accused of breaking into Mike Bryant’s home at 418 Melrose Ave. in Hamilton Heights subdivision are Lonnie Ray Carson, 17, 104 Carver Drive; Eugene Lewis, 17, 5016 Gibson Road; and a 15-year-old who was not identified.

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Walter Graves of Vicksburg, a 31-year-old for whom police had no street address, is charged with receiving stolen property.

Bryant had been in Biloxi for a police training session for two days and reported the burglary after he returned home Tuesday night.

“I came home, and my front door was kicked in, and my back door was standing open,” he said.

Inside, he found burglars had taken the guns, police radios, a police badge, uniforms, a protective vest and video equipment.

The guns were among those Bryant has collected for about 20 years for participating in World War II and Civil War re-enactments. Some belonged to Bryant’s friends and were replicas used in re-enactments.

Police said more arrests will follow and more property was expected to be recovered today.

The arrests came Wednesday after a foot chase near the 15-year-old’s home on Springridge Drive, also in Hamilton Heights.

Four weapons, Bryant’s missing DVD player and DVDs were found at the home on Springridge, police said. Other searches followed.

Nothing was found when police searched a home on Gibson Road in the county. But on Hillside Drive, off Halls Ferry Road, investigators found two rifles and a handgun belonging to Bryant.

Police arrested Lewis at his home at 5016 Gibson Road, which in not the same home searched for stolen goods, at about 4:30. A half-hour later, Carson was arrested at his home on Carver Drive, off Gibson Road.

Recovered from the trunk of a 1991 Toyota Camry at Carson’s home were two shotguns, a BB gun, a semi-automatic weapon, two rifles, a box of ammunition and a police flashlight, all missing in the burglary.

Graves was arrested at a friend’s home in the 4900 block of Halls Ferry Road at about 9:30 Wednesday night, and police recovered an SKS assault-style weapon there.

Police said 12 of the 40 guns were recovered.

The teens face charges of grand larceny and burglary. Burglary charges carry a penalty of up to 25 years in jail, and grand larceny punishment is up to 10 years in jail. The maximum punishment for receiving stolen property is up to 10 years.

Police did not have an estimated value for the stolen goods, but a police radio is typically about $3,500.