Man Gets 10 Years for Trafficking Gun Used to Kill Chicago Officer

A former Chicago man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a firearms trafficking scheme that brought guns from Mississippi to Chicago, including the firearm used to murder Chicago Police Officer Thomas Wortham IV in May.

Quawi Gates, 27, formerly of the 2100 block of West 71st Street in Chicago, was sentenced to two consecutive 5-year prison sentences Wednesday in a federal court in Mississippi.

Gates earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and abetting another to cause a federal firearms dealer to keep false records, according to a release from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Four guns purchased for Gates in Mississippi have been recovered in violent crimes in the Chicago area involving Gangster Disciple street gang members, authorities said.

One of the guns Gates illegally trafficked was used in the May 19 murder of Officer Thomas Wortham IV, who was gunned down in front of his parents’ Chatham neighborhood home in an apparent robbery attempt.

Three men have been charged in Wortham’s death, one of three murders this year that claimed the lives of Chicago Police officers.

Officer Thor Soderberg was shot and killed with his own weapon July 7 during a struggle outside a South Side police station. Officer Michael Bailey was cleaning his car outside his Park Manor neighborhood home on the South Side about 6 a.m. on July 18 when he was fatally shot in the torso.

Gates will serve three years of supervised release after his incarceration and was ordered to pay a special assessment fee of $200, according to the release.

ATF Special Agents and Chicago Police assigned to a Chicago-based ATF Firearms Trafficking Taskforce investigated the case that led to Gates’ arrest and sentencing.