Naperville man charged with illegally selling guns to prohibited buyers
A Naperville man has been charged with buying guns for people who aren’t legally allowed to have them, including a suicidal man who ran onto the grounds of an elementary school when being chased by police.
Melvin Gist Jr., 27, of the 1500 block of West Jefferson Avenue, is charged with unlawful possession of firearms with the intent to deliver them, according to DuPage County court records.
Judge Joshua Dieden Friday ordered Gist to be detained pretrial.
Gist is accused of buying seven handguns and one rifle, on several occasions, at gun stores in Naperville and Plano, then selling them to other people.
According to a prosecutor’s petition for pretrial detention, in October 2024 he sold a Glock 9 mm handgun for $500 to a 29-year-old Woodridge man.
On Nov. 18, 2024, Woodridge police were called to the 2500 block of Waterbury Drive for a report that the man, who had been reported as missing and suicidal, was looking in windows.
The petition says the man ran away from police and onto the grounds of St. Scholastica Catholic School, which was in session. He ran into a courtyard between classrooms and a school office and approached a second-grade classroom, according to the petition.
When police apprehended him, they found a Glock 9 mm about 2 feet away from him on the ground, according to the petition.
A trace of the gun by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives showed it was bought in Naperville by Gist, according to the petition.
The school was placed on lockdown during the incident, and a teacher quit afterward due to the stress of the matter, according to the petition.
The man has been charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday.
In his detention order for Gist, Dieden wrote, “The cavalier attitude and blatant disregard for the law and safety of the community supports an inability to mitigate the danger he poses with any condition of release.”
Gist’s next court date is June 23.