‘Harvey: Weapon of mass confusion’
Sources say 10-year-old was struck by infamous gun that has captured attention of cops, prosecutors and a curious public
By Lauren FitzPatrick
Staff writer
Ten-year-old Alex Covington didn’t know he’d been shot.
Several minutes after bullets whizzed over the heads of his baby brother, his father, his father’s girlfriend and her sister as they huddled on a bedroom floor, Alex made a sad, droopy face and said, “Daddy, I’m hit.”
One bullet tore through the back of his left thigh.
A second ripped a chunk of flesh from his skinny rib cage.
His dad, Albert, and Lachaunda Scott, Albert’s longtime girlfriend, had just returned from celebrating Albert’s 30th birthday.
After a long day of toasting with friends, a tipsy Albert made it up the stairs of the home where his sons had been playing with their aunt in Scott’s father’s home. Albert flopped in the bed next to Alex. Scott climbed the stairs and picked up baby Alonzo.
“When the first bullet came in through the window, I had the baby in my arms, I shouted, ‘Get down, get down,’ ” Scott said. “The house got shot up, pap, pap, pap.”
The five of them crammed into a small space between the bed and a love seat.
“Al was asking, ‘Anybody hit? Anybody hit?’” Scott said.
“Daddy, I’m straight,” came Alex’s reply, indicating he was OK.
As the others picked themselves up, the boy felt his wounds.
“No, Daddy, I’m hit,” came a solemn voice, followed by steady tears.
Only Alex was struck when dozens of bullets burst through the wall and the window over the bed.
Harvey police suspected Anthony Reynolds, 28, fired some of those shots into the small, yellow bungalow at 15019 S. Paulina St. Scattered over the back yard, they found at least 10 .45-caliber shells and four 9 mm casings, too.
They went looking for Reynolds.
When they found him, police say, Reynolds drew his weapon on them.
And now they know, sources tell the Daily Southtown, Alex was struck by bullets fired from the same gun that later disappeared from police custody, sold back to Reynolds’ stepfather.
This weapon — a silver-and-brown, .45-caliber Remington semi-automatic handgun — has become emblematic not only of the crimes that plague Harvey’s streets but of the crimes believed to be taking place inside Harvey’s police department
BREAK
The gun was in Reynolds’ hands about 10 p.m. on Oct. 13, 2005, the night Covington was shot.
It turned up again five days later, when two officers caught up with Reynolds around 147th and Vail streets to ask him about Alex’s shooting.
At the sound of the words, “Harvey Police,” Reynolds pointed gun at one of them.
The officers fired three shots at Reynolds. He ran. Then he tossed the gun.
Officer Tony DeBois found the gun under a car, scribbled the serial number on his incident report, and gave it to Hollis Dorrough, a detective in charge of Harvey police evidence at the time.
The gun disappeared before Dorrough could submit the weapon for testing by the Illinois State Police — the next stop in the evidence chain.
Dorrough said Harvey Mayor Eric Kellogg called him into a meeting with Anthony Reynolds and Reynolds’ stepfather, Larry Purnell. Initially, the detective contended that’s when the gun was taken from his desk.
In late June of this year, as Cook County prosecutors prepared to put Reynolds on trial, they learned the weapon wasn’t in evidence. They convened a grand jury to investigate the disappearance. But the gun didn’t just vanish. Prosecutors learned Dorrough — just days after he checked out the house where the Covington boy was shot — sold the Remington to Reynolds’ stepdad.
Sources say Purnell quickly flipped the gun, selling it to someone on the street.
Dorrough, now charged with obstruction of justice and other crimes, told investigators a city official ordered him to return the weapon to Reynolds’ family. Sources say the figure identified as “Public Official A” in Dorrough’s indictment is none other than the mayor.
Kellogg denies any involvement. He has not been charged with any crime.
But the streets gave up the gun.
In September, it resurfaced at the Robbins Police Department. It was one of more than a dozen guns given over to authorities after the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force began applying pressure in an unrelated investigation.
Sent for testing, sources tell the Southtown, the gun matches the slugs fired into the Covington boy. More than a year later, charges may be filed.
Had the gun gone directly for testing on Oct. 18, 2005, Harvey police might have closed this case on their own.
Had Harvey police taken Reynolds off the street, they may have prevented the slaying of Martell Edwards. In April of this year, the 23-year-old Edwards was shot dead at a car wash in South Holland. Reynolds is charged with his murder.
Why did investigators believe Reynolds fired the shots into the home where Alex Covington and his little brother were being baby-sat?
Lachaunda Scott said Reynolds, also known as “Ant,” was after a teen who had shot him and his best friend, Aldana Hale, weeks prior. Reynolds survived. Dark scars now mark his arms and chest. But Hale, 26, died.
Neighborhood gossip put the shooter inside the yellow house.
Scott said Larry Purnell, whom she had known for several years, asked her about Hale’s shooting the day before her father’s house got blasted.
Something about the group of guys hanging on the block that day, dressed in head-to-toe black, made her uneasy.
“It was a beautiful day to the point they shouldn’t have had any hoodies on,” she said.
BREAK
The little boy, now 11, has left the Southland. Alex Covington has been sent far from Harvey to live with relatives in the South for his own safety. In the wake of the shooting, he began acting out.
The man who held that gun, Anthony Reynolds, sits in the county jail.
He’s accused of murdering Martell Edwards and pointing a weapon at a police officer. He faces trial on first-degree murder charges, as well as being an armed habitual criminal, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and felony possession of a weapon.
Hollis Dorrough, the detective, is out on bail, facing charges of official misconduct, obstruction of justice, perjury and the unlawful sale of a firearm stemming from the sale of the gun.
The .45 Remington is in the custody of the state police.
And Mayor Eric Kellogg, said to be the subject now of both local and federal scrutiny, remains in city hall.
Lauren FitzPatrick may be reached at lfitzpatrick@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5964.
Printed in the Daily Southtown, Dec. 3, 2006 on page 1
Printable Weapon of mass confusion || The SouthtownStar || Eye on Harvey
