Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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July 4, 2008

City police arrest Bluefield man on carrying deadly weapon charge

By BILL ARCHER

BLUEFIELD — After receiving several complaints concerning a man discharging a handgun a few blocks west of the city municipal building in the Third, Fourth and Rogers street area, police arrested a city man who was in possession of a stolen weapon.

“We started receiving calls about a man wearing dark clothing who was allegedly firing a gun into the air,” Patrolman R.D. Davis of the Bluefield Police Department said. “We initiated a search for the suspect and eventually found him in the vicinity of the Mercer Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.” Davis said the calls started coming into the department at between 4 and 4:30 p.m.

Although he did not release the name of the suspect, Davis said he was a 32-year-old Bluefield man. Davis recovered a stolen 9 mm Highpoint handgun from the suspect.

Police charged the suspect with possession of stolen property and carrying a deadly weapon.

“We did not actually see him discharge the weapon,” Lt. D.A. Pennington said. “When we were in the neighborhood searching for the suspect, we heard several firecrackers go off.”

After a preliminary inspection of the weapon, Davis determined that the weapon had been recently fired, “but how recently, I do not know,” he said.

He said he planned to send the weapon to the police lab for additional examination.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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