2nd suspect charged in Gary ATF shooting taken into custody

GARY, Ind. (WLS) -- A man who had been on the run after the shooting of an undercover ATF agent in Gary, Indiana has been taken into custody, the ATF said Saturday.

Bernard Graham, 25, of Calumet City surrendered to federal authorities at about 12:15 p.m. Saturday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana said.

Graham and 19-year-old Blake King have both been charged with assaulting a federal officer and carrying and discharging a firearm in the furtherance of a crime.

A 29-year-old man who has not yet been charged was also taken into cusody. Gary resident Raymon Truitt, 28, was also involved in the incident, but was shot and killed at the scene.

The charges come after an ATF agent was shot Thursday in Gary as part of an undercover operation.

U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II of the Northern District of Indiana said the undercover operation started on the South Side of Chicago, continued to south suburban Lansing and ended in Gary Thursday afternoon.

The 29-year-old was trying to illegally sell handguns to an ATF informant operating out of Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, Kirsch said. The man met with the informant in a parking lot in Lansing, before traveling with two undercover ATF agents to the residential area of 5th Avenue and Kentucky Street in Gary to make a transaction.

Kirsch said the man introduced the informant to Truitt, who was allegedly his firearms supplier. Graham and King were also at this location. The informant told the two men he had $2,000 to buy the weapons.

Truitt told the informant to check out the guns Graham had. Kirsch said Graham lifted his shirt and showed the informant a gun in his waistband.

When Truitt asked for the money, the informant went back to the car the undercover agents were sitting in to get it. According to Kirsch, King then handed the informant a bag that allegedly contained firearms but was instead full of pots and pans.

Kirsch said King pulled the informant's shirt over his head and Truitt and Graham opened fire on the undercover agents, striking one of the agents in the right side of his chest and left arm. The undercover agents shot back and Truitt was killed in the shootout.

The maximum penalties for these crimes is life in prison. Kirsch said his office plans to seek indictments from a federal grand jury that may or may not include additional charges.

Celinez Nunez, the special agent in charge of the ATF's Chicago division, said the agent is expected to make a full recovery.