Ex-cop from Charlotte area charged with buying gun for someone in straw purchase
A former Gastonia police officer who last year pleaded guilty to 12 felonies is facing new federal charges for buying a gun and giving it to someone else, according to an indictment unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
Xana Dayanae Dove told Belmont gun shop owners at Shooter Express that the pistol she was buying was for herself, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson. Then she gave it to someone else, prosecutors allege, violating state and federal law.
In November, Dove pleaded guilty in Gaston County to a dozen felony charges related to illegally accessing police computer systems and helping someone deceive a polygraph test, The Gaston Gazette reported. She became a suspect in that case when officers found that she sent a confidential photo to a suspected drug trafficker, Gaston County District Attorney Travis Page told the Gazette.
Apologizing at that November hearing, Dove said she was manipulated by the drug dealer and “wasn’t trying to break the law.”
Dove, now 28, on May 25, 2023, certified on an ATF form that she “was the actual buyer” of the Springfield Hellcat Pro 9mm pistol, when she knew that was “false and fictitious,” the indictment filed last week reads.
Court documents do not reveal who the actual buyer was, but Ferguson in the news release said Dove faces straw purchasing charges.
According to his office, “purchasing a gun for someone who is prohibited by law from possessing one, or for someone who does not want his or her name associated with the transaction, is a ‘straw purchase,’ a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.”
Dove on Friday morning pleaded not guilty to both counts she faces: making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm and causing a false report during a firearm purchase. If convicted, the former officer could spend 15 years in prison.
