An Indiana man pleaded guilty Wednesday to straw-purchasing the handgun later used to kill Chicago police Officer Ella French during a traffic stop last year.
Jamel Danzy, 30, of Hammond, entered his plea to one count of federal firearm conspiracy via a videoconference before U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who set sentencing for Oct. 28, court records show. Preliminary sentencing guidelines call for up to 16 months in prison.
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French was killed and her partner was critically wounded last August after stopping a Honda SUV with expired tags in the West Englewood neighborhood. Two brothers who were in the Honda, Eric and Emonte Morgan, are charged with first-degree murder in the shooting and are awaiting trial.
Investigators, meanwhile traced both the .22-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol used to shoot French and the car the Morgan brothers were in to Danzy, who was charged in U.S. District Court a few days after the killing, court records show.
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Records showed that Danzy bought the gun in March 2021 from a licensed dealer in Hammond, where he claimed to be buying the weapon for himself. ATF agents tracked down Danzy at the restaurant where he worked, and he agreed to be interviewed on tape in an agent’s car in the parking lot.
Agents showed him the paperwork from the dealer, and at first he claimed to have bought the gun for himself, according to the criminal complaint filed against Danzy last year. But “after further questioning,” he admitted he instead had bought it for someone in Chicago, Individual A, who had a felony record and could not buy a gun for himself.
Though Individual A was not identified in the charges, information included in the complaint confirmed he was Eric Morgan.
Morgan went to Indiana to pick up the gun shortly after Danzy purchased it, according to the complaint. The same gun was found in the yard where Morgan was arrested on the night of French’s killing, according to prosecutors.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
