Friday we learned that a gun used in a drive-by shooting that killed a 13-year-old boy in Stockton was registered to the city’s mayor, Anthony Silva.
Silva claims the gun was stolen from his home, and that he reported it stolen as soon as he realized it was gone. But questions remain as to why there’s such a large gap between the time Silva’s gun was allegedly stolen, and the day he reported it stolen to police.
At this point, it’s unclear when Silva’s gun was originally stolen. What we do know is in January 2015, it was used in a shooting. In February 2015, it was used in a second shooting, which resulted in the death of 13-year-old Rayshawn Harris. It wasn’t until March of 2015 that Silva reported the gun stolen.
FOX40 spoke with Silva directly about the gap in time during this series of events:
Silva: “As far as timelines, I’m not going to give timelines. This is what I’m going to tell you as soon as I realized that my gun was missing, and I wasn’t going to be able to recover it, I reported it. I reported it to two different agencies.”
FOX40: “That was in March though.”
Silva: “I’m not going to go over timelines. That’s not what I’m here to do. So that’s my statement…So go to another question, I’m not going to answer it.”
FOX40: “Why did it take more than two months, at the very least, to report it?”
Silva: “I’m going to say once again, once I realized my handgun was stolen, I reported it.”
FOX40: “So you had this gun at a house you didn’t live at. Did you check up on it often, it’s a firearm? Did you think that was important?”
Silva: “I keep my weapons in my closet out of the reach of my son. They have trigger locks on them. It’s not something I checked every day. Most gun owners, unless you’re sleeping with your weapon at nighttime or unless you’re a public safety officer, chances are you’re not checking your gun every single day. So for people to try to make it seem like I’m some negligent gun owner, it’s just silly.”
FOX40: “We’re talking about a matter of, at the very least, two months.”
Silva: “If somebody stole something from your house right now, are you going to know it’s missing?”
FOX40: “If it’s a gun, I might. I might take more stock of that.”
Silva: “Well as soon as I realized it was missing I reported it stolen.”
FOX40: “Can I ask why you won’t answer questions about the timeline?”
Silva: “Because right now it would be like the news media trying to get me to commit to one thing, when I’m in the middle of still an investigation of trying to figure out who took the gun. So I’m not going to have the people who did the crime watching FOX40 at home getting all the information they need based on what I said. So I have no more further comments about it. I’ll ask you one more time, and then you have to leave the beach.”
Originally Silva said he’d first learned his gun was connected to Rayshawn Harris’ death from a reporter’s question. He maintained that story, however, he did say law enforcement officials reached out to him one week prior to the reporter’s question, requesting that Silva speak to them about a gun.
