The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’
National Integrated Ballistic Information Network Program

Audit Report 05-30
June 2005
Office of the Inspector General

NIBIN Branch, Firearms Programs Division, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Week of 1/24: A handgun recovered from a suspect in an aggravated assault was linked to a shooting that occurred during a robbery eighteen months earlier by the Metro Nashville (TN) Police Department using the NIBIN system. In the first incident, two armed suspects approached two victims who were sitting in a car parked on the street. The suspects demanded money. While trying to flee the scene, one victim was shot by the suspects. Police responding to the call found 9mm cartridge casings at the scene and imaged them into NIBIN. Eighteen months later, two people showed up at the apartment of a friend of one of the visitors. A fight broke out between the suspect and the occupant of the apartment resulting in the occupant being shot. The victim provided police with an identification of the suspect and they located him a short time later. A 9mm pistol was recovered from the suspect's car. The pistol was test fired and imaged into NIBIN resulting in the link to the aggravated assault eighteen months earlier. The case is pending. Week of 1/31: Use of the NIBIN system by the Charlotte (NC) Police Department and Federal law enforcement assisted in the Federal prosecution and conviction of a felon involved in a shooting and in firearms trafficking. Charlotte Mecklenburg Police responded to the scene of a shooting where they located two female victims who were passengers in a vehicle driven by a suspect involved in the shooting. The suspect got into an argument with the driver of another vehicle when they both pulled out guns and started firing at one another. The first suspect drove away with the two female victims in the car and officers from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Police Department attempted to stop the' vehicle. He refused, wrecked the car a short time later and fled on foot. Both victims told police they did not know the identity of the suspect. Police recovered .40caliber and 9mm shell casings at the scene of the shooting and imaged them into NIBIN. Sixteen months later, a Federal task force investigating firearms trafficking obtained a .40-caliber pistol from a suspected 'straw purchaser." The suspect from the shooting sixteen months earlier was believed to have possessed and trafficked in firearms that were purchased by several female associates. The .40-caliber pistol was test fired and imaged into NIBIN resulting in the link to the earlier shooting. Task force members followed up on the investigation and found the suspect was a multi-convicted felon and one of the female victims in the first shooting confirmed he was in possession of the pistol at the time of the shootout. The suspect was convicted in Federal Court and sentenced to nearly four years in prison. Week of 2/7: The Shreveport Police Department and the North Louisiana Criminalistic Laboratory linked a .4O-caliber pistol recovered during a narcotics investigation to an alleged drug-related shooting that occurred five days earlier. In the first incident, two victims were sitting in a vehicle near an intersection when another vehicle pulled up and the occupants began shooting at them. The victim passenger sustained a gunshot wound to the head, but survived. Shreveport Police recovered ballistic evidence at the scene, which was imaged into NIBIN. Investigators received information about possible suspects and that the shooting was allegedly revenge for the victims stealing drugs. Five days later Shreveport Police working a narcotics investigation served a search warrant on a residence and recovered several pistols, a rifle, narcotics, narcotics paraphernalia and a large sum of cash. One suspect was arrested. The weapons were test fired and imaged into NIBIN resulting in one of the pistols linking to the ballistic evidence recovered in the shooting five days earlier.