Some community members were in an uproar about the fact that one of the people arrested for a drive-by shooting on Mission Street last Friday had a gun that was released to him after he had been arrested for a felony.
A letter writer to the Santa Cruz Sentinel blamed the police department, which responded in full force on its blog.
"In 2009, the victim in this case was arrested for carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle thanks to the good work of the Watsonville Police Department," writes Deputy Chief Steve Clark. "A record check at the time showed the gun had no registration information on file.
"The court case was strung out over 2 years where charges were eventually pled to a Watsonville Municipal Code violation of 4-7.01 Discharging a Firearm (which didn’t actually happen). Yes it is true, a known gang member carrying a loaded firearm in a car, and his case is pled to a Municipal Code violation of discharging a firearm in the city. Sorry folks....That’s not the police department’s fault. The officers did their job by locating this person, arresting him and getting his unregistered weapon off the street and out of the hands of gangs.
"The weapon was returned to our homicide victim, not the “suspect”. Prior to releasing the gun, the Watsonville Police Department did everything in their legal power to prevent it. They had the gun checked through the IBIS system for matches to any other crime related guns, and they forced the owner to register the gun and get a Department of Justice clearance. With the owner only being charged with a miniscule Municipal Code infraction, the Department of Justice directed the Watsonville Police Department to release the gun.
"For those of you that are troubled by this, your argument isn't with the police. We don't get to write the laws and we aren't the judges. All we can do is keep pulling the guns off the street and hope the rest of the system supports the effort."
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