Gun's Roots in Mississippi

By Sean Stillmaker in News on Sep 19, 2010 7:00PM

The .45-caliber handgun used to murder Officer Thomas Wortham IV was found to be part of a gun running scheme from Mississippi. Quawi Gates is from the Englewood neighborhood and attended college in Mississippi. The state’s lenient laws and abundant gun shops was too much of a temptation. Gates would have students buy guns for him, which is illegal, and then compensate the purchaser $50-100.

Gates would then sell the guns in Chicago at a near 100 percent markup, the Tribune reported. Gates was charged in 2009 at a federal court in Mississippi. Wortham’s commander, Keith Calloway, drove to the courthouse in Greenville Miss. to testify last month. Gates, 27, was sentenced to the maximum 10 years in prison.