Ex-Bel Aire cops investigated for ‘possible illegal arm sales’; submachine guns another issue

A joint local-federal investigation is focusing on “possible illegal arm sales” involving former members of the Bel Aire Police Department, Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter has confirmed.

The investigation, involving the Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, began in December and is ongoing, Easter said.

Interviews by The Eagle on Friday also uncovered differences over a related matter – the Bel Aire Police Department’s purchase of submachine guns.

Regarding the investigation, former Bel Aire police Chief John Daily said investigators indicated to him that there had been allegations involving officers buying weapons for work that might have ended up in personal use.

Police agencies can buy firearms at a discount directly from manufacturers. The guns are supposed to be used only as service weapons and are not to be re-sold.

A former Bel Aire police Lieutenant, Carl Enterkin, said Friday that federal and sheriff’s investigators interviewed him for about two hours earlier this year, and among the things they were trying to find out was whether he knew if any guns acquired for police work had been re-sold to someone outside the law enforcement community.

Enterkin described the general direction of their questioning as being about possible “illegal acquisition and disposal of firearms.” Enterkin, a former Wichita police lieutenant who took a voluntary layoff from his Bel Aire job, said he doesn’t think he is a subject of the investigation. He was with the department from 2005 until late 2011.

During his interview with the investigators, Enterkin said, he shared another concern over Bel Aire police weapons – the department’s acquisition of a “good number of fully automatic submachine guns,” enough to arm most of the full-time officers. He said the guns can fire hundreds of rounds a minute.

Enterkin said he viewed the purchases as being part of an obsessive gun culture within a “certain group in the department.”

Enterkin said he thought having the guns, known as the MP5, “was excessive armament for a small agency.” The department has 12 employees and serves a population of about 7,000.

Another concern, Enterkin said, is that the officers didn’t have a chance to train and become proficient with the weapon, unlike the Wichita police SWAT unit, which routinely trains with the guns. Enterkin, 65, said he had been one of the first members of the Wichita SWAT unit.

He said it bothered him that officers, including one with a domestic-violence arrest, were allowed to take the MP5s home.

“My position was it put the department and the city of Bel Aire in huge potential liability” for misuse or an accident, Enterkin said.

Daily, the former chief, on Friday defended his decision to buy the guns through a government surplus program that allowed the department to pay only about $50 per gun, compared with a full retail price of $2,700 per weapon. So, at great savings, the department was able to buy six semi-automatic MP5s around 2009, Daily said.

Then, around late 2011, the department bought eight MP5s that could fire on fully automatic mode.

Daily said his main motivation was to provide protection for the public, especially in case of an active shooter. When he became Bel Aire police chief in 2006, Daily said, the only long-gun weapon the department had was a shotgun. The city has large shopping areas and schools to protect, he said.

Daily said his officers got proper training on using the MP5. Officers who had an MP5 had the option of locking it up at the police station or taking it home and securing it, Daily said.

“As far as I know, every one of those guns was at the Police Department when I left” this past fall, he said.

The current Bel Aire police Chief, Darrell Atteberry, said Friday that all of the MP5s are accounted for. But, Atteberry added, “I don’t see the same need for those as the prior administration.”

All of the MP5s will be returned to the government surplus program, he said.

Atteberry, who became chief in May, said he was aware of the federal investigation and stressed that no current officers are subjects of the investigation. Atteberry said the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the ATF are in charge of the investigation. Beyond that, Atteberry said, he couldn’t comment.

Jim Cross, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said the office “can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a federal investigation.”

Late Friday afternoon, Bel Aire City Manager Ty Lasher said he’s confident that no city funds or equipment are missing.

“We’ve been cooperating completely with the sheriff and the ATF,” Lasher said. “We have made sure that everything the city purchases is accounted for, and it is. And no weapon that the city purchased has left the city’s control.”

Daily, who retired as police chief in December after holding the job for nearly eight years, said that a sheriff’s detective and an ATF agent came to him after he retired.

“They showed me a couple pieces of paper, some forms, that have to be filled out if your agency is going to purchase firearms,” Daily said. Federal law requires certain paperwork on gun purchases by members of law enforcement, he said.

The investigators showed him a couple pieces of paper on which an officer requested to buy a gun for use on the job, signed by Daily. The investigators also showed him paperwork that he had never seen before, he said.

When Daily asked what it was all about, he said, they told him there had been allegations that at least one of the officers was buying firearms but turning them to personal use. There is a fine line between on-duty use and personal use, Daily said. And at the time he had been chief, he said, the department had a policy that officers could carry a concealed weapon in an off-duty capacity.

Daily said he never heard any more about the investigation, “so I just kind of blew it off.”

He said he still doesn’t know the specifics of the investigation nor who might be the focus of the investigation.

This story was originally published September 5, 2014 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Ex-Bel Aire cops investigated for ‘possible illegal arm sales’; submachine guns another issue."