Chicago man robbed undercover federal agent during gun sale sting, prosecutors say

CWB Chicago

Chicago — Federal prosecutors say a Chicago man robbed an undercover ATF agent during what was supposed to be an illegal gun sale in a Bronzeville grocery store parking lot last week.

In a court filing to support robbery and weapons charges, another ATF agent described a series of meetings between Durr and the undercover agent that were recorded on audio and video and watched by surveillance teams.

The complaint said that Durr initially met with the agent on November 4 and said he would have guns available the following week for $1,200 to $1,300 each. The undercover agent bought the first gun on November 7 in a grocery store parking lot in the 3800 block of South Martin Luther King Drive. That block is home to a Mariano’s.

On November 9, the men met in the same parking lot and followed the same script: Durr allegedly slid into the back seat of the undercover agent’s car and sold another 9-millimeter “ghost gun” for $1,300.

In a phone call last Wednesday, Durr agreed to sell the undercover agent four handguns for $5,200, according to court records. They met in the grocery store lot around 2 p.m.

As before, the agent went to the meeting with cash bearing serial numbers that investigators recorded in advance.

But this time, instead of getting into the back seat of the agent’s car, Durr sat in the front passenger seat and gave the agent his phone to speak with a man who said he would be at the lot in ten minutes with four guns, the complaint said.

As the undercover agent began counting out $5,200 from a stack of $6,500 that he took to the meeting, Durr pulled a handgun and pointed it at the agent while holding his finger on the trigger, officials allege.

Durr took $5,000 of the money and ordered the agent to leave the car and walk away.

“I’ll shoot, n*gger,” Durr allegedly threatened.

After the agent walked away, Durr allegedly took a bag from the driver’s side of the car and fled in his own car. Surveillance officers pursued Durr’s car but lost it on Lake Shore Drive, the complaint said.

Investigators scoured Durr’s public Facebook account and “identified a suspected close female associate.” They went to her home, saw Durr’s car parked nearby, and noticed that the undercover agent’s bag was inside the vehicle.

Someone who lives with the “suspected close female associate” allowed agents to enter their home to arrest Durr. They also permitted agents to search the house, which resulted in the recovery of a loaded handgun from a garbage can and $4,700 in currency bearing recorded serial numbers, according to the complaint.

Durr’s aunt and parents wrote letters of support to the court.

“Lil Randy lost a very special person to him to gun violence,” his aunt, Natasha Williams, wrote. “As most of us know, tragic situations can hit us hard and we find ourselves not thinking straight! … He is still dealing with the loss of his best friend.”

“If given a second chance I assured [sic] he will make better decisions.”

In a joint letter, Randy and Yamashita Durr said their son is a churchgoer with a passion for music and cooking. They said he works two jobs and only has one day off per week.

Durr is “still battling with grief from the loss of his friend .. which has impacted his self-disposition and decisions significantly,” the couple wrote.

“Wrong is wrong and right is right and in this case my son was wrong, but one thing for sure I know…I did not raise my son to be what he appear to be in court.”

According to Cook County court records, Durr is on bond for a felony manufacture-delivery of cannabis case that stems from a February 2021 traffic stop. Chicago police said they found a digital scale, 13 ounces of suspected cannabis, and $5,248 in the car Durr was driving.

Six months after that incident, prosecutors charged Durr with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon after another traffic stop. That time, Chicago police said they found a loaded handgun with an extended ammunition magazine and an automatic-fire switch in the glove compartment of a vehicle Durr was driving.

But defense attorneys argued that Durr didn’t own the car, and there were other people in it, including the front seat passenger, who was much closer to the weapon. The case was dropped seven weeks later, according to court records.

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