Gang member faces sentencing in Chicago for Spokane-bound train gun theft

A judge sentenced a Chicago street-gang member to 11 years in prison for helping to steal around 100 new guns from a Spokane-bound freight train and then illegally selling them.

Judge John Tharp sentenced 38-year-old Patrick Edwards on Thursday in Chicago federal court.

Prosecutors deemed Edwards a career train burglar. And they said he should know better than anyone how deadly gun trafficking can be, given that his own brother was fatally shot years ago.

Prosecutors had asked for at least a 12-year prison sentence. But defense lawyers said Edwards’ was sincerely remorseful and that his efforts to change should have been considered.

Edwards and seven others slipped into a Norfolk Southern rail yard in 2015 to the steal guns being hauled to Spokane from New Hampshire’s Sturm, Ruger & Co.

Tharp recently sentenced one of Edwards’ co-defendants to 10 years in prison, saying such gun thefts contribute to Chicago’s “epidemic of violence.”