A Kansas City man who is a suspect in the shooting of three individuals this week was charged with illegally possessing a firearm in connection with a different incident nearly four months ago.
Leamandreal Dorsey, 40, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed today in federal court in Kansas City.
Dorsey has a long rap sheet. He served three years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City. He also has two felony convictions for unlawful use of a weapon, two felony convictions for possession of a controlled substance and a felony conviction for drug trafficking.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Dorsey was arrested as part of an operation announced by the Justice Department earlier this month to combat violent crime in Kansas City and other major urban areas. Under Operation Legend, named after a 4-year-old Kansas City boy who was killed while sleeping, the Justice Department is temporarily dispatching 225 FBI and other federal law enforcement agents here. The agents began arriving this week.
The agent who swore out the criminal complaint against Dorsey, however, is a former Leawood police officer who has been a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Kansas City for several years. Similarly, the first complaint made under Operation Legend on Monday was sworn out by a detective with the Independence, Missouri, Police Department. In that case, too, a Kansas City man was charged with illegally possessing firearms.
Don Ledford, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said existing agents may be working alongside the new agents, accounting for why the two cases were deemed to be part of Operation Legend.
“There would have been several agents/officers involved in the investigation, but only one agent signs the complaint and affidavit,” Ledford said in an email.
A third Kansas City man was charged as part of Operation Legend on Friday. Steven L. Younce, 38, was accused of meth trafficking and illegally possessing firearms. He was arrested by deputies with the U.S. Marshals Service. Younce has prior convictions for forgery, tampering with a motor vehicle and other charges, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr announced on Wednesday that the Justice Department was sending an influx of federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque as part of Operation Legend to help combat violent crime in those cities. Barr said that 200 people in Kansas City had already been arrested as part of the operation, a claim later walked back by the Justice Department, which said Barr had included arrests dating back to last December.
The charge against Dorsey dates to an incident on April 1, when police were called to a disturbance in the 2500 block of East 68th Terrace. One of Dorsey’s neighbors said that Dorsey had pointed a gun at and threatened him.
When police contacted at him at his residence, Dorsey, who was sitting atop a Mercedes-Benz automobile, jumped into the driver’s seat. After the car’s owner consented to a search of the vehicle, police found a backpack in the passenger seat with a Glock .40-caliber handgun and an extended drum magazine attached to it as well as a spare magazine, according to the complaint. DNA evidence later linked Dorsey to the handgun.
Dorsey was arrested although not charged this week in connection with an early morning shooting Wednesday on the same block. Dorsey allegedly shot at six individuals sitting on the front porch of a house, then walked away before returning and firing again. Three individuals were hit and taken to Research Medical Center. Police later received a Crime Stoppers tip that Dorsey was the shooter.
Ledford said Dorsey was charged in connection with the April incident rather than Wednesday’s incident based on the most easily verified evidence available.
“The case must still be presented to a grand jury for indictment, at which time additional charges potentially could be added,” Ledford said.
