HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office opened a brand new firearms lab to help cut down on gun-related crime and keep the community safe.
It’s a problem that’s personal to Jacquline Saddler-Daniels.
“On the inside, I melt every day, but for some reason, I have to try to keep going on,” said Saddler-Daniels.
Her son was killed by gun violence.
“These senseless crimes are happening every day,” said Saddler-Daniels.
In an effort to continue reducing gun-related crime, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office launched a new firearms lab.
“Not only was public safety an aspect in our decision to establish a firearms lab, consider for a moment if you were a shooting victim or a relative of a homicide victim who was the target of gun violence. You would want, and you deserve some sense of comfort, closure, and justice,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister.
The Sheriff’s Office said the lab will serve as a resource for the agency to compare firearms used in a crime against a national network.
Sheriff Chronister explained cartridges, similar to a fingerprint, have unique markings and characteristics.
“The cartridges and bullets are then collected for analysts,” said Chronister. ”After uploading the data into NIBIN, where there is a match, investigators can then connect with another jurisdiction to share and discuss case details and possibly identify and develop leads from a suspect.”
The Sheriff’s Office said that the staff has reduced the turnaround time from an average of 169 days with the state lab to a period ranging from 24 hours to just a few weeks.
“There’s nothing more that matters to us than getting justice for victims,” said Chronister.
Families that have been impacted by gun violence hope this helps bring about swift solutions.
“Just like it happened to me, it could be anybody,” said Saddler-Daniels.
