A Democratic mayor who campaigns to get “illegal guns” off the streets had two such weapons in her home, according to police.
The husband of Mayor Lovely Warren of Rochester, New York, has been arrested in a drugs-and-guns case, and one of the charges involves the possession of unregistered and possibly illegal weapons in their home.
According to reports in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, the New York State Police found illegal weapons in a raid on the home that Timothy Granison shares with Ms. Warren.
Mr. Granison, a convicted felon, was one of seven people arrested this week in a seven-month drug investigation, the Democrat & Chronicle reported.
Police found cocaine inside Mr. Granison’s car and then executed a search at the Warren-Granison home and several other locations, the paper reported. Those searches found almost 4½ pounds of cocaine and crack, three firearms, a semi-automatic rifle and more than $100,000 cash, the paper quoted Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley as saying Thursday.
New York State Police Maj. Barry Chase said the search at the mayor’s home netted an unregistered handgun, a loaded magazine and the semi-automatic rifle.
Mr. Granison faces three felony counts — two of drug possession and one of illegal firearm possession. He has pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance.
According to the website Bearing Arms, because Mr. Granison was convicted of an armed robbery in the 1990s, his possession of any gun or rifle would be a felony, regardless of whether they were registered.
The pro-gun site noted that Ms. Warren has been “a vocal supporter” of the state’s “draconian” SAFE Act that restricts gun ownership in that way and others.
It noted that the mayor had said earlier this week that “getting guns off our streets must be a priority” in announcing a gun “buyback.”
The city’s police department is “working with their partners in law enforcement to stop the flow of illegal guns into our city,” she said.
Last year, she called the illegal guns on Rochester’s streets “disheartening” and noted that the police had recently seized 200 illegal guns.
“Well, I suppose the good news for Warren is that there are two fewer guns in Rochester today. Too bad for her that they were seized from her own home,” Bearing Arms writer Cam Edwards wrote.
On Thursday afternoon, the Democrat & Chronicle reported, Ms. Warren said that the pair are legally separated even though they live in the same house with their daughter.
“In a five minute speech outside her City Hall office on Thursday afternoon, Warren repeatedly questioned the timing of her husband’s arrest,” the paper wrote.
The Democratic primary for the Rochester mayor’s race, in which Ms. Warren is seeking another term, is set for June 22.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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