An Albany police recruit told a supervisor that her gun was stolen from her car in the Law Enforcement Center parking lot. Caught in a fib, she later recanted her story.
Albany police recruit Shunell Borders says she feared getting fired if her bosses knew she lost her city-issued semi-automatic service weapon.
So she lied and said it was stolen – from her personal car at the police station, according to public records.
But Ms. Borders didn’t lose her job; instead, she received a written reprimand signed off by Chief James Younger, and she had to buy a new gun.
Why didn’t the public know until reading this report that a police officer’s missing gun is at large? And, for that matter, why wasn’t Ms. Borders – who suggested that a city employee or jail trustee working at the police station stole her weapon — charged with filing a false police report?
Mr. Younger won’t say. He ignored The Albany Journal’s inquiry about the case, despite getting paid more than $100,000 a year in salary and benefits to, among other things, be forthcoming about the goings-on under his watch.
As it turns out, public records show, Ms. Borders stored her gun in her unlocked car to keep it away from her children; that is, if Ms. Borders is now telling the truth.
Ms. Borders has been warned by Mr. Younger and other superiors that if she loses her gun again, yet-to-be-determined “discipline more severe” would be imposed. But there was no consequence – and won’t necessarily be in the future – for the police recruit not reporting her gun missing, and then lying by saying the gun had been stolen, according to public records.
Mr. Younger has been caught in some shams himself, as documented by the Journal and other news organizations. And now, Mr. Younger has hired – and decided to keep – a police officer whose credibility on the witness stand can forever be challenged by defense attorneys.
‘One of those people working outside … must have did it’
If Albany’s police officers hadn’t been told to turn their guns in for repair on March 9, it’s unclear from public records when – or whether — the Albany Police Department would have learned that Ms. Borders lost her gun.
That’s the Police Department’s version, anyway. Some police sources told the Journal that a gun inventory was taken, under the guise of repairs being needed, after Ms. Borders reported her gun stolen in an effort to determine whether another police officer had lost a gun, and then stole Ms. Borders’.
“Most of the recruits returned (from the police academy in Tifton) and turned their weapons in by 18:30 (6:30 p.m.),” Sgt. Greg Elder said in a report. “Ms. Borders contacted me via cell phone and reported that she would be late due to the fact she had lost her keys to her residence …”
“Around 19:00 (7 p.m.), Ms. Borders called a second time and reported she was still having problems finding her house keys. She stated that someone could have stolen her keys and she was going to get a spare key from her landlord … At 19:30 (7:30 p.m.) after not hearing from Ms. Borders I decided to leave .. and called her on her cell phone and advised she could bring her weapon to District 3 on May 10 at 7 a.m. for repair. Ms. Borders requested to see me in person.”
At about 7:45 p.m., 75 minutes after telling Mr. Elder that she was running behind schedule because she lost her car keys, Ms. Borders told Mr. Elder that her gun had been stolen from a shoebox in the trunk of her unlocked car outside the police station – underneath a spare tire.
“She walked in with a defeated look on her face as if she had no choice but to report her weapon stolen …” Mr. Elder said. “She went on to say she came back from the police academy and looked inside her trunk for her weapon so she could turn it in as requested. She stated she did not find her weapon in the trunk.”
Mr. Elder says that Ms. Borders told him during his inquiry, “I really new (sic) something was wrong when I looked in my glove compartment, and my magazines (containing bullets) were gone.” And she added: “One of those people working outside around my car must have did it.”
Trickery unveils the truth
By this point, Mr. Elder says he didn’t believe Ms. Borders.
“I asked her if she truly wished to report her gun stolen from the police compound and she said yes …” Mr. Elder said. “At this point I clearly believed she was attempting to conceal the fact she may have lost her weapon. Her responses to my questions were answers that a person who may have lost something would give.
“She made statements that she went looking for the gun in at least three different residences, which forced me to believe she had not seen her weapon where she reported it to most surly (sic) be located, ‘in the trunk of her car under the spare tire’.”
Mr. Elder had a trick of his own up his sleeve.
“I made a conference style call … I requested to speak with Sgt. Laster so Ms. Borders would hear me speaking to a live person,” he said. “When he answered, I picked up the receiver so she could not hear his answers. I asked him if he was recording the compound with the cameras at the front desk.
“I was checking for Ms. Borders’ responses to me asking the questions. After Sgt. Laster advised me that the cameras may not be recording, he hung up. I continued to ask questions as if he was on the other end to solicit responses from Ms. Borders. I said, ‘OK, since they are recording, I would like to see the tape from this morning at 0500 (5 a.m.) until now.”
Mr. Elder said he then hung up, asked Ms. Borders if the tape would show her looking for the gun in her car, and made Ms. Borders write a statement – but that wasn’t easy, either.
Why lie? Afraid of ‘losing my job’
“She questioned why she had to write a statement,” Mr. Elder said. “I explained how the report of a crime should be reported. I also explained to her that this was a very important matter and we needed to act as soon as we could to get the stolen gun into the GCIC system. Ms. Borders gave me the impression this was not an important matter to her by her body language … I gave her the statement form and she again asked what she should write. I asked her why she was worried about what to write when all she has to write is the truth.
Ms. Borders started saying, ‘Well …’ and I stopped her from attempting to explain. I told her I had been conducting investigations of crimes for nine years and I have heard lots of stories. I told her I had concluded she was lying to me … She simply allowed her head to fall down as she looked toward the floor. I accepted this position as the cross road to the truth, the same if she had started crying. I then asked her why she had led me to believe her weapon was stolen. She only advised she was afraid to report she may have lost it. I asked her what was the worst outcome of her losing her gun could be, and she stated, ‘Losing my job.’”
Ms. Borders then wrote in a statement. “On March 9th at 5:15 p.m., I discovered that my duty weapon and my three magazines was (sic) misplaced, out of my vehicle, so I thought about looking for my misplaced equipment at my old apartment. I had to look for my key to the old apartment to get inside, so I went to look for the key at my new apartment, and didn’t have any luck in finding the key, so I met my mother at my grandmother’s house.
“Then we went to my old apartment. Luckily, the window wasn’t locked so I climbed through and went searching for my equipment in the dark … Afterwards, I discovered that my equipment had to be lost or misplaced. Because I just recently moved this past weekend, and all this week, and that’s how I think my equipment got misplaced or lost.”
Four days later, on March 13, the Police Department began investigating the incident by interviewing Ms. Borders further, and processing Ms. Borders’ vehicle for fingerprints, to no avail.
Officer Catoa Baldwin reported, “I then asked Borders why she didn’t take her weapon inside the house with her, and she stated that she has two small kids, and she does not want her kids to get the weapon. I then asked Borders why she didn’t lock her doors, and she stated that (the) doors will not lock. I then looked at Borders’ drivers’ side door, and the lock was missing from the door.”
The Albany Journal on Monday asked Mr. Younger for information and perspective for this story, but did not get a reply.
