Cops: Raid nets 1,600 knives, guns, names of officers and deputies

March 22, 2010 11:17 PM

U.S. Marshall Nominee for the Northern District of Illinois Darryl McPherson and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart (from left at right), hold a press conference today to discuss charges against Kevin Long. Officers found about 1,600 knives along with batons, brass knuckles, several non-working handguns and one working handgun during a weekend search of Long's home.

A man who last week tried to bring four knives into the Daley Center courthouse faces more charges after authorities said they found almost 50 illegal weapons, including switchblade knives and brass knuckles, in a raid Saturday of his Northwest Side home.

Investigators from the Cook County Sheriff's Department and agents from the U.S. Marshals Service seized 1,600 knives -- including plastic knives designed to foil metal detectors -- as well as one operable handgun, expandable metal batons and a handful of fake law enforcement-style badges from the home of Kevin J. Long, 48. The raid resulted in 47 additional weapons charges against him.

They also recovered evidence that Long had collected personal information on certain law enforcement officers with whom he had disputes in the past, according to Steve Patterson, a spokesman for the sheriff's office.

"We recovered numerous boxes of documents from his home, and in those were several pieces of papers with police officer and sheriff deputy names on them," Patterson said. "There was nothing saying a specific threat against a specific person, but it was certainly clear that he was documenting specific people's names."

Long, who lives in the 4500 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, was released on parole in November after serving 15 months in prison for intimidating a witness in a civil case. Long allegedly threatened to kill the witness' child, authorities said.

He has also been arrested 18 times since 2000, including for entering a judge's chamber, masturbating in public and violating an order barring him from Northwestern College in Chicago.

Long is being held in lieu of $350,000 bail after he was allegedly caught trying to bring four hunting knives into the Daley Center on March 16. A sheriff's deputy spotted the outlines of the knives in Long's briefcase as it passed through a metal detector in the lobby entrance, authorities said.

When asked what was inside the briefcase, Long allegedly answered, "Papers." When the deputy found the knives, Long produced a receipt showing he had bought them earlier in the day and said he forgot they were in the briefcase.

After he was charged with weapons violations last week, Circuit Judge Donald Panarese banned Long from entering any Cook County courthouse unless he was required to appear, and only then if he was accompanied to and from court by a court deputy.

Long is one of about 20 people named on a threat list created by the sheriff's and the marshals' offices designed to track individuals believed to be potential threats to judges or other officials.

From: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/03/cops-names-of-police-and-weapons-in-home-of-man-on-watch-list.html