Posted on 12/12/2001 2:01:08 AM PST by Sandy
NEW HAVEN — Police in bulletproof vests Tuesday converged on a quiet Westville neighborhood and seized an arsenal of illegal assault rifles, canisters of live ammunition and a box of hand grenades from a pricey home.
A 31-year-old man who lives in the house was arrested.
"I've only seen this in a Bruce Willis movie," said one stunned neighbor, who came outside to survey the spectacle.
Inside 851 Forest Road, police recovered at least four AR-15 assault weapons, authorities said. The guns, a civilian version of the military M-16, are illegal in Connecticut. They also recovered bomb-making manuals and volumes of hate literature, police said.
"It's an ongoing investigation," said state police Lt. Robert Kiehm, the commanding officer of the Special Licensing and Firearms unit, which spearheaded the investigation. "We went in looking for assault rifles. During the search, we were able to find several."
The grenades were an unexpected discovery, authorities said.
"The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) and bomb squad are trying to make a determination if they are dummy grenades or active," Kiehm said.
The search shocked the quiet, wooded neighborhood of trimmed lawns and well-kept homes.
State and New Haven police arrested Charles Cornelius according to New Haven Sgt. Steve Shea.
Cornelius was charged with four counts of illegal possession of an assault weapon by the state police. He also was arrested on a New Haven warrant, Shea said. Both the state and city warrants were ordered sealed by a Superior Court judge, and details of the allegations were not immediately available.
Kiehm and Shea would detail how the investigation unfolded or how they first learned of the weapons.
Kiehm would only state that warrants were the result of a six-month investigation into Cornelius. Despite the hate literature and heavy firepower, police said they found no evidence Cornelius was planning an attack on a specific institution or person.
"Hopefully, we've gotten here before that," Kiehm said.
The Cornelius home is at the corner of Forest and Cleveland roads near Hopkins School in an upscale section of Westville.
Cornelius lived there with his parents.
His father, Eugene Cornelius, is an associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine. A neighbor said he recently retired.
Charles Cornelius attended Hopkins from 1982 to 1987, but didn't graduate, school officials said.
Police said Cornelius' parents apparently were unaware of the weapons in their home.
In addition to New Haven and state police, agents from the ATF and FBI were on the scene.
The investigators combed through the house and emptied the contents of the two-car garage into the driveway, leaving a tarp-covered Porsche parked inside.
Investigators spent hours cataloging the evidence in the driveway. They toted out five metal boxes containing ammunition and shotgun shells. They also found a variety ammunition magazines for assault rifles, a pistol-gripped shotgun and several handguns, Kiehm said.
Among the literature, he said, police found books on how to make bombs and incendiary devices.
In other literature, they found pamphlets denouncing a variety of ethnic and religious groups, including books from white supremacists.
"We found materials relating to the Church of the Creator," Kiehm said.
The Illinois-based group is led by white supremacist Matt Hale, who in March held a rally in Wallingford.
The seized weapons will be sent to the state police lab for test firing and then held as evidence, Kiehm said.
Cornelius was held in lieu of $325,000 bail on the state and local warrants.
Police said more arrests are possible.
...which are perfectly legal in most states.
The use of the adjective makes me wonder if the reporter knows what he's writing about.
and a box of hand grenades
Since there's no "live" associated with this, I'm willing to bet they are dummy paper-weights.
Clueless in Connecticut apparently leads a sheltered life.
I'd like more details...on what basis did the authorities obtain a search warrant? What, other than possession of 4 rifles, is this 31 year old being charged with? Was he fingered, perhaps, because of public demonstration? Was his computer hacked? Was his phone tapped? Inquiring minds want to know.
Yathink? Or could it be he was caught in the act of posting some pro-2nd-Amendment comment on a conservative news forum? Could it be he held a sign at a rally, professing, perhaps, a sentiment in support of gun ownership? Might the purchase of the rifles been a sting? Could a neighbor have played Big Brother and, after hearing a "questionable" comment, called in a "tip"? The whole thing stinks.
I suspect the "reporter" (government anti-gun propagandist might be a more accurate term) who wrote this either made up the quote or interviewed enough neighbors until he found a quote that fit with the breathless tone of his article. Here we have a victimless crime (possession of -HORRORS - "assault" rifles) that is being made to seem like a big deal by an anti-gun reporter for an anti-gun paper in a state with unconstitutional anti-gun laws. I would love to be on the jury for this guy. (He'd walk)
Amen! May it be so!
Probably by the 4473's
May the Lord provide just such jurists as you. May he walk.
(If he doesn't, every Constitution-abiding citizen is sentenced with him.)
I am young and naive...what's a 4473, please?
...and we thought it was bad when they took away our 2nd Amendment rights...the thought police are on the move; say goodbye to the 1st Amendment.
Yup.
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