A Buffalo man faces up to 15 years in jail after pleading guilty Wednesday to felony possession of a weapon. Arthur Jordan, 22, also faces separate federal charges of threatening police officers on social media. The plea followed meetings with prosecutors who unveiled their case, including surveillance video showing two city police officers taking the gun away from Jordan in the cell phone store in which the arrest was made. After reviewing the evidence, Jordan and his lawyer agreed to a guilty plea, without the case going to a grand jury.
"We had at least two officers who were present when he was in possession of a loaded handgun. The gun was operable, which means it works and that is a crime, a very simple crime to prove, made more simple by the fact that he actually had it on his person," said Acting District Attorney Michael Flaherty at a news briefing Wednesday.
Flaherty said his office watches police threats carefully.
"We take them all seriously but here, we have allegations that this defendant, carrying an illegal handgun, had issued threats to harm police officers. In this day and age, we take all those threats seriously. The violence against police officers is unpredictable, nationwide," Flaherty said.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda says Jordan is a "gangbanger" who belongs to the Central Park Gang.
Flaherty says at sentencing October 27, his office will bring in Derenda and other officers to urge State Supreme Court Justice Penny Wolfgang to give Jordan the maximum 15-year sentence and not just the mandatory minimum of three-and-a-half years.
