SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, July 7, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A 41-year-old Las Vegas man has been charged by a federal grand jury in the District of Utah with theft of firearms from a gun store in St. George.
Brett Clinton Combs also was charged on suspicion of being a restricted person in possession of firearms, says a news release a statement from the Department of Justice, Utah District.
According to the allegations in the criminal complaint and law enforcement affidavit filed by federal prosecutors, Combs used a rock to break into the Dixie Fish and Gun store in St. George during the early morning hours of March 4.
“After a ‘glass break’ alarm alerted law enforcement to the incident, St. George police officers responded to find the front glass door of the business shattered and several cases containing firearms damaged,” a DOJ Utah District statement says.
“Video surveillance from the business showed a single suspect breaking the front glass door with a rock to enter the business. Continued surveillance footage showed the same suspect breaking several display cases, removing several firearms from the display cases, and then placing the firearms in a duffle bag, before exiting the business.”
A subsequent inventory of the firearms at the business revealed that 17 firearms, all 9mm semi-automatic pistols, were missing, the statement says. Blood from broken glass on a display case was submitted to the Utah State Bureau of Forensic Services for analysis.
Using the Combined DNA Index System for comparison, investigators determined that the blood discovered on the broken glass was a DNA profile match with Combs, the statement says. In addition, one of the stolen firearms was recovered in conjunction with a separate crime in Las Vegas.
Assistant attorneys from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah are prosecuting the case. Special agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with officers from the St. George Police Department, are conducting the investigation.
