Friday, July 3--OC Police Help With Pa. Probe

OCEAN CITY - A failed shot in the air from a handgun in the downtown area two weeks ago led to the arrest of a Pennsylvania man and ultimately helped law enforcement officials in that state to close a residential burglary investigation during which several guns were stolen.

Around 2 a.m. on June 16, Ocean City police plainclothes officers patrolling in the downtown area around 3^rd Street and Baltimore Ave. observed a man with a larger group of people urinating on a parked car. While the officers continued to observe, the suspect, later identified as Adam Wayne Jackson, 19, of Landenberg, Pa., walk over to another group of people in a hotel parking lot.

Jackson then produced a handgun from his waistband, pointed it straight over his head and pulled the trigger. The gun did not go off, however, and the Ocean City police officers quickly responded to the scene and arrested for possession of the handgun.

During the subsequent investigation, detectives learned prior to their arrival on the scene, Jackson had attempted to rob an unknown victim using the gun. The officers confiscated the weapon, a Glock 9mm pistol, and checked the serial number, which revealed the gun was reported stolen.

OCPD detectives later determined the handgun they recovered from Jackson was one of eight stolen during a residential burglary on June 11 in Londongrove Township, Pa.

OCPD investigators provided the Pennsylvania State Police with information about Jackson and his associates in Ocean City at the time of his arrest. The information enabled Pennsylvania investigators to develop additional suspects in the open burglary cases and eventually make several arrests related to the original burglary on June 11 as well as other burglaries that had occurred in the Londongrove Township area.

For the events leading to his arrest in Ocean City, Jackson was charged with attempted armed robbery, attempted robbery, using a handgun in the commission of crime of violence, wearing and carrying a handgun on or about his person, second-degree assault and theft under $500. He was taken before an Ocean City District Court Commissioner and ordered held on a $250,000 bond. Jackson was then transferred to the Worcester County Jail.