Second arrest in New York ambush
Ex-PH2 sends us a link from NBC which reports that William Spengler, the jackwagon who ambushed firefighters in Webster, NY on Christmas Eve, had convinced 24-year-old Dawn Nguyen to purchase the weapons he used because he was a convicted felon and unable to buy the weapons himself.
The complaint alleges that Nguyen acted as a “straw purchaser” for Spengler, who, as a convicted felon, could not legally own, acquire or purchase any firearm, Hochul said. The charges are related to an AR-15-type semiautomatic rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun — two of the three weapons found near Spengler’s body Monday, according to State Police Investigator James Sewell.
Hochul said that a suicide note left by Spengler “includes information about obtaining the guns” from Nguyen.
So, I guess this proves that criminals will always break laws, and that’s probably why we call them criminals. Of course, Nguyen claims the guns were stolen from her car, according to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
Earlier Friday, Nguyen’s brother said the weapons were stolen from Nguyen’s car.
“They think they sold him the guns, but he stole them,” said Steven Nguyen, 18, in the doorway of the family’s Seneca County home.
Either way, there were enough laws in this case to prevent Spengler from legally acquiring a gun, but he circumvented the laws. The fact remains that after he was convicted of beating his grandmother to death with a hammer, he shouldn’t have been out of prison. But I guess it’s easier to punish legal gun owners in New York than to make criminals pay for their behavior in a meaningful way.
Sadly, you are right it could have been prevented.
BTW, i dropped off my firearm paperwork this week since i am off. My Town’s PD said they’re pretty busy and it’ll take closer to 6 weeks as they have received 10 permit applications this week.
Hopefully it won’t take too long, and while I was never an expert marksman while i was in, i look fwd to going out with my father in-law to the ranges.
Umm, cute smile?
So let me see if I have this straight. A strawman purchased weapons that were later used to murder people. Was this before or after the Federal Fast & Furious program? Just wondering where Spengler got the idea.
From what I can tell, Spengler’s prison release wasn’t a discretionary one but was, instead, mandated by law. He then completed his supervised parole without incident. The killing occurred 32 years ago and Spengler most likely would have been out no matter what.
Six weeks to process a permit? Here the PD is legally obligated to issue within 14 days or provide legal reasons for denial in writing to the applicant.
And this is another example of criminals being criminals, and law-abiding citizens being punished as a result. Again.
So she did what the DoJ and ATF did for the Mexican Drug Cartels, yet I have not seen any of them doing a “perp walk” for the hundreds of deaths they are accomplices in…
Not that I am in any way condoning her alleged actions. If she did in fact act as a straw purchaser for hi, she is as guilty as him.
He never should have been out of prison…
What are the takeaways in this?
1- straw purchase
2- Dawn is cute but stupid
3- never trust a convicted felon who wants you to but guns for them
4- no matter what you think, the felon will betray you in such a situation
5- even though he took himself deep, he still managed to screw you by name in the afterlife, because; what does he care? He’s dead.
6- you are going to prison for the rest of your life, because you were stupid.
*buy*
Criminals not following the law…. Dang, who knew?
NY inmates are eligible for Conditional Release after completing two-thirds of their court-imposed maximum sentence and are STATUTORILY granted conditional release to community supervision DESPITE HAVING BEEN DENIED DISCRETIONARY RELEASE by the Parole Board.
The way it works is this. A bad guy is sentenced to prison and, while there, does not get into major trouble. He comes up for parole and is denied. Subsequent hearings are held and he is again and again denied parole. (This is what happened with Spengler.) Eventually, even though the Parole Board considers him to be undeserving of release, he is nevertheless released by operation of law. This, too, is what happened with Spengler. If that’s not enough, the Parole Board can issue certain certificates to parolees if they ONLY committed one felony! The certificates perform different functions but the key thing is that they remove many legal disabilities that accompany a felony conviction. The lefty states are the ones who enable release of really bad guys and then gnash their teeth and wring their hands when the bad guys do more bad things. But they seem never to look at how the laws they crafted and enacted helped enable the bad guy to strike again.
I think paying for his behavior in a meaningful way should have been the death penalty.
Stupid bitch.
The FOX News article on this put the emphasis on the Bushmaster’s “combat-style ” flash suppressor.
Oh, noes… a flash suppressor? That makes this rifle more deadlier than a normal rifle. Did… did… did it also have a pistol grip? If so, then it must have murdered millions of people before jumping into this kindly man’s hands and forcing him to commit those crimes against his will.
I’m sorry. The level of weapons-grade stupid in the media really makes me want to self-medicate with high grade alcohol this early in the morning.
Not to be anal retentive, but I believe that this would be the first arrest related to the ambush. Unless the state of new York is allowed to arrest a corpse.
2nd arrest? Was there a 1st?
What is the actual crime here? Do they need to prove she knew prior to the sale that he couldn’t legally own firearms in NYS?
Can a citizen in NYS making a private transaction make the same phone call that a dealer makes to validate a purchaser?
It’s been discussed here before, but if Dawn Nguyen’s firearms were stolen from her car (as her brother says), then clearly the law is working the way it should. After all, in order to be a responsible gun owner, the security and safety of firearms are the responsibility of the owner. I’m no criminal, but I don’t know of any car that isn’t burglar proof. If Spengler knew her guns were in there and stole them, how is that any different than stealing them from her house from under her bed if she didn’t keep them under lock and key?
Idiocy!
If i were her lawyer, I would request a delay in trial until the ATFE agents that provided arms to mexican drug cartels were tried. Probably tilting at windmaills, but making a point.
I’m thinking that being shot by the police is just like being arrested, isn’t it?
I am with eggs. Two little words would have solved this problem before it happened – Death Penalty. Dead convicts don’t shoot their sisters or firefighters. Simple huh?.
To somewhat answer my own questions, the crime she is accused of as of now is ‘willfully and unlawfully making a false statement’.
I read through NYS penal code section 265, which seems to be the section that talks about firearm sales, and can find nothing that says it’s a crime to sell a firearm to a felon. It seems to say that the crime is the purchasers, not the sellers.
Those crazy right-wing white male gun nuts like this perp are responsible for all the gun violence in this country… wait…
She did exactly what Fast & Furious did EXCEPT the Feds apparently lost track of some of the guns.
The more I think about this, the more pissed off I get. The Fast & Furious program authorized strawman purchases of weapons (including the so-called assault weapons) that were subsequently used to murder a Border Patrol agent and some unknown number of Mexicans. I mean, this is the administration that wants to curtail weapon possession isn’t it? And the left loves to play what-if games. So, what if one of those particular weapons had been used (or is used in the future) to commit a mass murder? Or how about if one of them is used to commit a political asassination? But Fast & Furious is an obama admin baby so–sssshhhhh!
Some of the headlines are fun to read. ‘Woman charged in firefighters deaths’, ‘Woman charged with providing guns to killer’. Sounds like pretty serious shit for someone released on OR.
@22: How would we know if a F&F gun was used in a mass murder? It’s not like THAT information would ever get out, if, G-d forbid, it ever happens. We wouldn’t have found out about Brian Terry if it wasn’t for a whistle blower that subsequently lost their job.
As for strawman purchases: In my state, it is illegal for me to go in and buy a firearm knowing that I’m going to sell it to someone else that cannot legally buy it. It’s stated in the paperwork you fill out to buy a firearm. So in my state, it is on the purchaser, as well as the buyer.