Tracking the gun used to kill Sean Collier

BOSTON — Tracing the history of guns used in crimes is low-tech, but as FOX25 learned, this “old school” technology helped provide answers in the Boston Marathon bombings.

More than 200 people were injured and three lives were lost when bombs went off at the finish line on April 15, 2013.

Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were identified as the suspects a few days later, and as the massive manhunt for them began, they shot and killed MIT police officer Sean Collier.

Tracing the murder weapon 

Mickey Leadingham is the Special Agent in Charge of Boston's ATF -- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

He said it wasn't an easy process to trace the gun used in Collier's death.

“There is no database for firearms,” Leadingham said. The serial number on the gun was also obliterated.

FOX25 traveled to the ATF’s only gun tracing facility in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Files there are kept in piles of boxes. Each owner’s gun information is on a piece of paper called the Form 4473. Some of those forms are on microfilm.

"We’re the only law enforcement agency with the authority to trace firearms after they've been recovered in crimes," ATF program manager Neil Troppman told FOX25. "On any given day, we may receive 1,000 trace requests."

While some employees check through the paperwork, others man the phones tracking down sellers and former owners of guns.%

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An agent finally got a lead on the gun used to kill Collier, when they found the paperwork on the gun and traced it back to someone in Maine.

The ATF determined that person gave the gun to someone else, who in turn gave it to Mehawi “Howie” Berhe.

Berhe then gave the gun to Stephen Silva, a childhood friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, according to the ATF, and Silva admitted he lent the gun to Tsarnaev.

Silva was never charged in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings. At Dzhokar Tsarnaev's trial, Silva testified saying that he lent the gun, but had no knowledge of the bombing plot. Berhe, the man who gave Silva the gun, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Every gun has a story to tell

Guns attached to infamous attacks, from the Sandy Hook school shooting to the Pulse Nightclub attack, and even the Craigslist Killings, were traced at the facility.

"The individuals that we are targeting, investing a significant amount of resources on, are violent offenders," ATF group supervisor Ross Marchetti said.

The national tracing center receives about 400,000 requests per year. Agents usually are able to complete “routine” traces within five days.

The sheer volume of forms kept by ATF was enough to cause the floor of their building to buckle. Adding to the difficulties, the microfilm images are very low resolution and the paper forms are sometimes damaged by water, fire and mold.%

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“So contrary to what people think, that there is some database - people worry about a database - but there is no database,” said Leadingham.%

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Cox Media Group