WINONA, Minn. — One of the ghost guns found discarded in an East Side alley on Tuesday was fully loaded with an extended magazine, Deputy Police Chief Jay Rasmussen confirmed. The chamber itself, however, was not loaded, Rasmussen said. A second ghost gun found nearby was not loaded, he said. Police found the guns after teenagers had gathered in the alley around a car that had been stolen near the East End Marina. Rasmussen said finger prints, DNA and other evidence have been sent to the state crime lab. Because ghost guns have no serial numbers, DNA and prints are among the few tools to figure out how the guns ended up in Winona. These were first of the plastic albeit potentially lethal firearms in the city, as far as police know.
Tentative reconstruction
The working police assumption in the case is that two teens stole the car at the East End Marina on the river at Laird Street, then later met up with friends in an alley near Center and Howard streets. The kids scattered on bikes and on foot when police arrived. It was believed the ghost guns were tossed as the kids fled, one in an alley trash bin and one in some grass. Two of the kids were intercepted and interrogated, then turned over to their parents for the time being.