So how did this man get a weapon? 2 bodies found after NJ standoff; suspect killed

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10789211
<snip>
Police stormed a New Jersey home early Sunday and fatally shot a registered sex offender who had held his girlfriend's three children hostage, ending their 37-hour ordeal and recovering the bodies of the captives' mother and another sibling, authorities said.

Officers initially went to the home in South Trenton Friday afternoon after a relative of 44-year-old Carmelita Stevens said she hadn't spoken to her in weeks and was worried, authorities said at a news conference Sunday. Upon further investigation, authorities then discovered her children hadn't been to school in 12 days.

Police entered the home through a rear door and smelled an odor consistent with that of a decomposing body, Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera Jr. said. The officers also noticed maggots throughout the residence.

They found 38-year-old Gerald "Skip" Tyrone Murphy in an upstairs bedroom and he told them he was armed with a gun and explosives and had three children with him, Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr. said. Officers noticed one of the dead victims before they retreated from the second floor and rescued Stevens' 19-year-old son from the basement, who said he hadn't seen her or his siblings since about April 24.

[Archae]

1. All sorts of ways.

1. Steal it.

2. Buy it at a gun show from somebody who didn't give a shit, just wanted to sell.

3. Someone bought it for him. (Straw purchase.)

4. One of his buddies gave it to him.

Could be other ways.

[Junkdrawer]

3. The way it's going, Mr Softee trucks will soon dispense them.

"want that with sprinkles or an AR-15 ?"

[baldguy]

13. From a "responsible, law-abiding gun owner".

[bowens43]

2. anyone can get a weapon. It's easy. This is why we need to ban guns and especially ammunition

[Travis_0004]

5. Even if you could ban them all, what are you going to do with the millions out there?

[Archae]

7. Well, the feds do SOOOO well going after weed in people's houses...

[FarCenter]

4. She should have done a background check.

Murphy and Stevens had been dating for a few months, and both lived in the house, police said. He was not the father of any of her children.
...
Murphy had a long criminal history including convictions for aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy, Bocchini said. He had previously been arrested for robbery and weapons offenses and child endangerment. He also had an arrest warrant in Pennsylvania for failing to register as a sex offender.

[malaise]

6. It is true that sometimes desperate women put their children

in danger

[FarCenter]

14. Do you think she would have become involved if she knew his record?

The barricade touched off Friday afternoon when Trenton police officers responded to the home Stevens rented on Grant Street to conduct a welfare check.

“Police further received additional information from another family member that Stevens’ two daughters had not been to school in 12 days,” Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera, Jr. said.

“When officers did not receive a response at the door and, fearing for the safety of the family, they made a forced entry into the home through a rear door and immediately smelled an odor consistent with a decomposing body. The officers also noticed maggots throughout the residence.”

He said police heard a man’s voice coming from behind the closed door of a second-floor front bedroom.

The man, later identified as Murphy, allegedly told police there was a dead person with him in the room, as well as a second body in a rear bedroom.

Officers forced their way into the rear bedroom, where investigators said they found a corpse “in an advanced stage of decomposition,” confirming Murphy’s claim.

Murphy then told police he had barricaded three children with him inside the 10-foot-by-11-foot front bedroom.

He also allegedly said he was armed with a handgun and explosives.

...

Murphy amassed what Bocchini called “an extensive record involving violence,” spending several stretches in Philadelphia prisons since the early 1990s on charges including aggravated assault, theft and firearms offenses.

“He has convictions for aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy,” Bocchini said.

“He has also been arrested for robbery and weapons offenses, as well as child endangerment.”

Murphy served his longest jail term in Philadelphia after pleading guilty in 2001 to sexual assault, for which he was sentenced to four to ten years’ confinement.

“Murphy, also known as ‘Skip,’ was found to have an arrest warrant out of Pennsylvania for failing to register as a sex offender,” Bocchini said.

http://www.metro.us/newyork/news/2013/05/12/gerald-tyrone-murphy-police-kill-barricade-suspect-find-two-bodies/

People should have an easy and inexpensive way to check for arrests, convictions, etc, before getting into a relationship with someone.

You can do it now through a detective agency, but it is expensive.

[Shrike47]

15. Yes, she might well have been in the relationship even if she knew his history.

I used to be an attorney for Child Welfare in our state. I frequently dealt with cases where the women knew the entire conviction history but believed the guy's story. (She said she was 17, I took the fall for my friend, my attorney told me to take the deal, etc)

A lot of women are desperate for a relationship.

[FarCenter]

16. Letting a Tier III sex offender into a home with your 16 and 18 year old daughters? Outrageous.

[99Forever]

8. The NRA and our easily purchased Congress has made sure that anyone...

... and I mean anyone and everyone, can get the tools of murder.

[PD Turk]

9. A better question

Why the hell wasn't he locked up?

"Murphy had a long criminal history including convictions for aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy, Bocchini said. He had previously been arrested for robbery and weapons offenses and child endangerment. He also had an arrest warrant in Pennsylvania for failing to register as a sex offender. "

We need to keep vicious thugs like this locked up, and if it means not locking up non violent pot smokers so we have room for the real criminals, so be it.

[malaise]

10. But pot smokers are able bodied black males who can work for free

in income generating private prisons

[PD Turk]

11. true

we need to get away from the privatized prison for profit BS and get back to public prisons that do what prisons are supposed to do. I'd be interested to know if this thug was on the streets so they could make room for someone who was more skilled at whatever kind of for-profit work they had going on.

[sigmasix]

12. another...

Another NRA-approved 2nd amendment expression. If the gun grabbers would just learn to allow gun humpers to achieve climax uninterrupted they wouldn't have to 2nd amendment-ize so many additional victims.
Everyone knows that the NRA and it's advocates love to reinforce the sexual excitement experienced by gundamentalists whenever they grip the hard, blue steel of thier gunz and feel the warmth of the blood of thier victims.
If you aren't sexually aroused by your gunz, you aren't the NRA member I am talking about- the gunz as sexual fetish crowd is pretty thick around NRA gatherings though so I doubt if there is much use in attempting to convince them to give up thier dysfunctional sexuality or cowardly need to feel the power of death over life that gunz give them.