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Investigators found the weapons in Shou’s Wetherole Street apartment.
By Forum Staff
A Rego Park man charged earlier this year with having more than 225 pounds of gunpowder and an assortment of unsecured weapons – including handguns, shotguns and assault rifles – and more than 45,000 rounds of multicaliber ammunition in his one-bedroom apartment has been sentenced to two years in prison.
“The defendant admitted his guilt and now has been punished for stockpiling an arsenal of unsecured weapons in his apartment – just a few short blocks from an elementary school. The amount of gunpowder recovered in the defendant’s apartment alone was capable of igniting and causing significant damage to not only the defendant’s apartment but to neighboring apartments and the building’s exterior walls, as well as injuring or killing anyone unfortunate enough to be in the vicinitym,” said District Attorney Brown.
The defendant was identified as Guo H. Shou, 34, of 65-60th Wetherole Street in Rego Park. The defendant pleaded guilty in October to third-degree criminal possession of a weapon before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Gia Morris, who imposed today’s determinate sentence of two years in prison followed by two years of post-release supervision.
According to the criminal complaint, members oftheNewYork City Police Department’s Licensing Division and Organized Crime Investigation Division Task Force conducted an administrative pistol licensee review at Shou’s residence on February 8, 2016. During that visit, officers observed hundreds of pounds of smokeless gunpowder, an assault rifle and high-capacity magazines and ammunition laying in plain sight. A court-authorized search warrant drafted by District Attorney Brown’s Computer Crimes Unit was executed at Shou’s residence. Law enforcement seized 14 licensed handguns, two loaded shotguns, a licensed rifle that lacked any safety lock devices, 45,000 rounds of ammunition, 225 pounds of smokeless gun powder, unassembled assault rifles, high-capacity ammo magazines, an ammunition press and other items.
According to the charges, Shou did not have a federal firearms license as a gun dealer and is not licensed to sell or manufacture firearms or ammunition. None of the items seized will be returned to him, the District Attorney noted.
