FBI: Kopp Used Fake ID
April 4 -- The fugitive arrested last week in connection with the 1998 slaying of a Buffalo abortion doctor used a fake ID to purchase the murder weapon, the FBI said in an affidavit.
According to the affidavit unsealed Monday, James Kopp, used the name B. James Milton on a fake Virginia driver's license to buy a Russian SKS rifle from the A-Z Pawn Shop in Nashville, Tenn. on June 16, 1997. Kopp was arrested in France last week after a two-and-a-half year manhunt in the slaying of abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian.
Patricia Osborne, the owner of the pawn shop, told The Associated Press the FBI contacted her in 1998 about a sale.
"I barely remember the transaction, could never have identifiedhis face," Osborne said. "I only know what the FBI told me."
Investigators say Slepian, 52, was killed in the kitchen of his Buffalo, N.Y.-area home by a single shot from the high-powered rifle on Oct. 23, 1998. The weapon was found buried behind Slepian's house sixmonths after the shooting. According to the affidavit, Kopp may have equipped the rifle with a homemade cartridge catcher and a stock extended for greater accuracy.
Another Example of Gun Checking Flaws
The allegation of Kopp's fake ID comes two weeks after the General Accounting Office released a report that found undercover federal agents were able to use fake identification to purchase guns. The report — and the revelation in Kopp's case — points out apparent weaknesses in the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS), which gun dealers are required to consult before completing every gun sale.
The system checks the name of the purchaser against an FBI database of the names of people legally prohibited from owning firearms — such as convicted felons, illegal aliens, and people dishonorably discharged from the military. But NICS is unable to verify the name provided by the buyer is actually his.
Kopp was indicted by a federal grand jury last October and an Erie County, N.Y., grand jury in 1999. Officials are seeking his extradition from France to face state and federal charges in Slepian's slaying. ABCNEWS' Li Fellers contributed to this report.
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