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Mini-mart manager faces federal gun charge

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited May 2002 in General Discussion
Mini-mart manager faces federal gun charge
By GINA BARTON
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: May 22, 2002
The manager of Quick Stop foods, who decorated the store with pictures of himself holding assault weapons, was charged with illegal gun possession Wednesday in federal court.

Questions about whether Ramzi Hinnawi is an American citizen prompted Magistrate Judge Patricia J. Gorence to postpone a decision about his bail until this afternoon.

Michelle L. Jacobs, general crimes and appellate chief for the U.S. attorney's office, said the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has questions about Hinnawi, a Palestinian. Hinnawi's attorney, James Kachelski, insisted his client was naturalized three or four years ago.

Jacobs also said Hinnawi, who has plans to go to Israel later this year to get married, may be a flight risk. In a search of his home, police found a driver's license, credit card, Social Security card and checkbook that contained a different spelling of his name.

According to a complaint filed Wednesday:

Milwaukee police ticketed Hinnawi last week for selling alcoholic beverages to a minor. When they checked the mini-mart at 416 E. North Ave. they found a pistol next to the cash register and an AK-47-type assault rifle in the back of the store.

When police returned to the store the next day to question Hinnawi further, he told them he had a loaded pistol under his shirt and other firearms in the store. They also saw the pictures of Hinnawi holding various weapons including what appeared to be a rocket launcher, a hand grenade, a grenade launcher and assault rifles. When police asked about the weapons, Hinnawi said they were at his house and agreed to let police search there.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms examined the weapons found at the store and more found at his home. The rocket launcher and grenades were inert. The suspected grenade launcher was actually a flare gun, and a suspected silencer was a barrel flash suppressor wrapped in tape. None of these is illegal under federal law. The federal charge stems from possession of a short-barrel shotgun and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

State authorities have not yet filed charges, Kachelski said.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/may02/45519.asp



"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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