A Southern California Sheriff’s Deputy is accused of dwelling a double life as a member of an outlaw bike gang as police discovered an arsenal of firearms at his dwelling — together with a stolen shotgun from his division.
Deputy Christopher Bingham, 45, was arrested after he was caught using with two members of “an area Outlaw Bike Gang” on March 23, based on the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Division.
Bingham, an 18-year Sheriff’s Division veteran, allegedly had an unloaded, unregistered firearm and was booked on the Smith Correctional Facility however was later launched.
The division had been on Bingham’s tail since January 2024 when police caught wind that he had been using and socializing with members of the gang, prompting officers to open an investigation into the deputy.
Investigators from the Gangs/Narcotics Division had been then granted a search warrant for his Twentynine Palms, Calif. dwelling following his arrest in March.
Police discovered a treasure trove of “roughly 160 firearms,” together with a completely computerized assault rifle, with an hooked up grenade launcher, the division mentioned.
Additionally they allegedly discovered “harmful gadgets,” silencers, paraphernalia from the gang, and “a stolen San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Division shotgun” in the course of the search.
The 18-year Sheriff’s Division veteran was arrested at his dwelling on Thursday at round 1 p.m. and booked on the West Valley Detention Middle.
“The actions of this deputy are alarming and inexcusable; he not solely tarnishes his badge but in addition undermines the integrity and credibility of your complete division,” San Bernardino Sheriff Shannon Dicus mentioned in a press release.
“Legal habits is not going to be tolerated, and now we have positioned him on obligatory depart efficient instantly. The investigation has been forwarded to the District Lawyer’s Workplace, and expenses have been filed.”
The San Bernardino County District Lawyer’s Workplace has slapped a number of felony expenses in opposition to Bingham.
Bingham has been charged with possession of a machine gun, possession of a short-barreled rifle, grand theft of a firearm, possession of a stolen firearm, possession of a harmful machine, possession of silencers, and participation in a prison avenue gang.
These expenses carry an enhancement for being achieved in affiliation with a gang, based on California Penal Code 186.22 PC.
His bail was set at $500,000 after his arsenal was found.
Whereas the division by no means specified which bike gang Bingham had been using with, District Lawyer Jason Anderson believes Bingham was concerned with the Mongols, based on The San Bernardino Solar.
“This seems to contain the Mongols, with out query,” Anderson mentioned.
Bingham owned a gun retailer in Twentynine Palms as a aspect enterprise whereas working for the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Division, based on public data obtained by the LA Occasions.
The shop, O’Three Tactical, has been closed since June 2021.
The enterprise was “unable to keep up any sort of stock” and was “hemorrhaging” Bingham’s “personal private funds,” he wrote on the shop’s Fb web page after saying the closure.
Bingham was additionally combined up in a homicide trial again in 2019 after Rafael Aikens — a former Marine — was arrested for killing his estranged ex-girlfriend Christy McKissic and her mom of their Twentynine Palms dwelling in 2017.
Bingham testified in the course of the trial that he had bought Aikens a .45-caliber handgun weeks earlier than the ugly murders and had additionally arrived on the scene in the course of the night time of the double murder, based on the Desert Solar.
Aikens was given a life sentence for his crimes, however the prosecution by no means revealed if the gun bought to him by Bingham was the one used within the killings.
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