Of the more than 1,000 arrests, roughly 217 stand for federal prosecutors.
Attorney General William Barr announced on Wednesday that there have been nearly 1,500 arrests in eight U.S. cities so far under the ‘Operation Legend’ law enforcement initiative launched about six weeks ago and highlighted by President Donald Trump in his reelection campaign .
Of those arrests, according to the Justice Department, about 217 are accused of federal crimes, most of them drug- and gun-related. Barr said investigators also assisted state and local authorities in prosecuting murder on more than 90 suspects.
“Those are more than 90 suspected murderers who may still be on the streets without Operation Legend,” AG Barr said at a news conference in Kansas City, Missouri.
Officials at the news conference could not say how many of the 1485 individuals arrested under Operation Legend are still in custody. The ATF also says it has seized nearly 400 firearms since the start of operations.
“Our work is just getting started, there is no more important mission for the Department of Justice than to keep our communities safe,” Barr said.
Barr launched ‘Operation Legend’ earlier this month, ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas told in an exclusive interview that the initiative was named in honor of 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro – who was shot and killed in his sleep at 29 June in Kansas City.
Kansas City police announced the arrest of a suspect in the Taliferro murder last week.
Taliferro’s mother spoke briefly at the press conference where she thanked the investigators who helped to track down her son’s suspected killer.
“We do not have our son, but we have lifted a weight of ours,” Taliferro said.
Trump began a White House news conference last week by holding a photo of the boy.
Local leaders have in several cases initially been resistant to the administration’s announcements that it would deploy federal investigators to cities that see violence in violent crime, with quotes from Seattle and Portland citing troops in fatigues and Trump’s election year threats to stings on cities run by Democrats.
Barr noted, however, that Operation Legend is separate from those efforts following riots and that the dozens of investigators who have been deported to the cities are instead more focused on helping federal and state authorities with violent crimes.
“There has been a lot of confusion in the media, some are not unintentional, and conflict with two different aspects of law enforcement,” Barr said. “One is dealing with civil unrest, insurgency, and the other is the classic traditional work that legislation does.”
At the news conference, Barr addressed the recent uptick of violent crime in various parts of the country – at one point and said – without providing evidence that he believed it could be a result of a combination of “pent up aggression” to state and local quarantine orders, the “premature release of dangerous criminals by the courts” during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ‘Defund the Police’ movement.
Barr admitted he expects this year to be an increase in the national rate of violent crime, after falling over the last two years.
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