MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - The Memphis Police Department says there was an obvious lapse in supervision that allowed a teen doing community service at a police precinct to walk off with an officer's pistol.
MPD Deputy Chief Anthony Berryhill noted, "Community service workers, by practice, should be escorted at all times when they're in the precincts."
Memphis police say 19-year-old Michael Bell was a community service worker at the Mt. Moriah station on November 16 when he stole an officer's gun out of a locker.
The .40 caliber handgun was eventually found a day later at Bell's home on Hampton Hill in Raleigh.
Berryhill says Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong and the rest of MPD's command staff is going to evaluate it to see if officers or precincts commanders did something wrong or was negligent by turning their back on community service workers for too long a period of time.
"If our practices were not followed, they need to be dealt with," Berryhill stated.
