Candace Leslie holds a photo of her late son, Cameron Brown, who was shot and killed in Indianapolis in 2021. The Glock pistol recovered at the scene had previously belonged to a California sheriff’s department.<\/span>Lee Klafczynski for The Trace<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n When the Stanislaus County Sheriff\u2019s Department<\/span> in California wanted to purchase new firearms, it sold its used ones to help cover the cost. The old guns went to a distributor, which then turned around and sold them to the public. One of those guns\u2014a Glock pistol\u2014found its way to Indianapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n That Glock was involved in the killing of Maria Leslie\u2019s grandson, and the fact that it once belonged to law enforcement makes her loss sting even more.\u00a0<\/p>\n https:\/\/play.prx.org\/e?ge=prx_149_7fe27ff3-d333-473d-b22b-e6dc6cc561d8&uf=https%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.revealradio.org%2Frevealpodcast<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMy grandson was in his own apartment complex. He lived there,\u201d Leslie said. \u201cHe should not have been murdered there, especially with a gun that traces back all the way to the California police department\u2019s coffers.\u201d<\/p>\n This week on Reveal<\/em>, in a collaboration with The Trace <\/em>and CBS News, reporter Alain Stephens examines a common practice for police departments\u2014trading in their old weapons rather than destroying them\u2014and how it\u2019s led to tens of thousands of old cop guns ending up in the hands of criminals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This is an update of an episode first aired in July 2024<\/a>. Since then, more than a dozen law enforcement agencies have stopped reselling their used firearms or are reviewing their policies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/article><\/div>\n
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