Loaded 9mm Smith & Wesson Found By Inmate At MCHOC In Franklin

Milwaukee County House of Corrections inmate in the laundry section discovered a loaded 9mm Caliber handgun, according to Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.

By H. Nelson Goodson 

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

February 23, 2015

Franklin, WI - On Monday - Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele in a press release confirmed that a 9mm Caliber Smith and Wesson semiautomatic loaded hand gun with eight bullets in the magazine and one in the chamber was found at the Milwaukee County House of Corrections (MCHOC) by correctional staff personnel. Abele's press release stated, "Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele applauds the quick action of correctional personnel at the Milwaukee County House of Correction (HOC) when they discovered a loaded gun in the dirty laundry that was sent from the County Jail – which is run by the Sheriff's Office. The HOC provides laundry cleaning services for a number of County entities, including the County jail.

The incident is under investigation, but it appears the weapon was snuck into the County jail late last week by an inmate who then stashed the weapon in dirty laundry. Per usual procedure, that laundry was sent this morning to the HOC for cleaning. Indications are that the Sheriff's Office was looking for the weapon, but they never alerted the HOC," according to Abele.

The corrections staff reported the weapon to the State Department of Corrections and a search on the FBI's National Crime Information Center showed that the weapon had been reported stolen. 

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. in response to Abele's inaccurate information, Clarke says that the handgun was actually found by an inmate assigned to the laundry detail at the MCHOC and not by correction officers as Abele first indicated. Sheriff Clarke praised the inmate "for doing the right thing" by reporting the loaded weapon to correction officers at the MCHOC. Clarke admitted that he was glad the inmate made the right choice and if someone else would have found it, things might have gone differently.

Clarke and Abele say, that an ongoing investigation is trying to determine how the weapon by-passed security check point procedures. Clarke says, that Milwaukee police had arrested a suspect with a leg cast and then took him to the hospital to get checked for a medical issue concerning his leg.

After the hospital treatment, police returned the suspect to the Milwaukee County jail for booking and processing. The suspect had no access to the dirty laundry section at the jail, according to Clarke.