A service weapon allegedly stolen from the home of a former Columbus police officer is now in the custody of the Columbus Police Department, according to Assistant Chief Fred Shelton.
The firearm, a Glock 23 .40-caliber, belonged to Garrett Mittan, now an officer with the Starkville Police Department. The Glock was reported stolen from Mittan’s Fourth Street residence along with seven other weapons in two separate burglaries since September 2014.
Lowndes County sheriff’s deputies found the Glock last week at the scene of a domestic call on Noblin Road, where they arrested Reginald Antonio Calmes, 39, and charged him with possession of a weapon by a felon, LCSO Det. Tony Cooper said.
Calmes, who was released on bond on Dec. 14, was convicted of aggravated assault in the 1990s. Shelton said deputies identified the Glock, which he confirmed had been Mittan’s service weapon when he worked for CPD, by its serial number. It’s been entered as evidence in the burglary case.
CPD issues officers their service weapons, Shelton said. Therefore it is technically city property.
Cooper wouldn’t comment on whether Calmes was a suspect in the home burglary or if deputies think he obtained the gun another way, such as purchasing it from an individual.
The Ricky Ball connection
The Glock is the second of the guns Mittan reported stolen to turn up at a crime scene. Columbus police officers found his Taurus 9mm near the body of Ricky Ball in October 2015, when Mittan was still on the force. Former CPD officer Canyon Boykin shot Ball dead after Ball fled on foot from a traffic stop in north Columbus.
Boykin, who has been charged with manslaughter in the incident, claims Ball had pointed a gun at him just before the shooting occurred.
Two separate lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern Mississippi in Aberdeen accuse Mittan of planting the Taurus near Ball’s body after the shooting. Mittan has not been criminally charged in the incident.
Meridian attorney Rick Barry, who is representing Mittan in the lawsuits, would not comment to The Dispatch Wednesday when asked if authorities finding a second gun stolen from his client’s home would help debunk gun-planting accusations.
Both the Glock and Taurus were allegedly stolen from Mittan’s home in a burglary on Aug. 5, 2015, along with a television and laptop. In a separate burglary reported on Sept. 14, 2014, someone took a black .32-caliber Winchester rifle; a black Remington cal 30-06 rifle; a 20-gauge Winchester shotgun; two 12-guage Winchester shotguns and a Colt AR-15.
Though only the Glock and Taurus have been recovered so far, Shelton said it is not uncommon for weapons stolen locally to wind up on the black market in other cities and states. Often, he said, those stealing or selling stolen firearms rub off the serial numbers to make them harder to track.
Reporter Alex Holloway contributed to this article.
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