Police: Bishop's View Burglars Were Packing Illegal Gun, Illegal Bullets

Three Philadelphia men arrested not far from the scene of an attempted burglary at Bishop's View Tuesday were armed with a handgun and dum-dum bullets when they tried to break in at the apartment complex, Cherry Hill police said.

Khalil T. Smith, of West Lenox Street, James H. Haines, of North Reese Street and William M. Jefferson of North Marshall Street were arrested after the attempted burglary, which turned into a home invasion, police said.

The three men, all in a black Volvo SUV, were caught on Cuthbert Boulevard, just a half a mile from the apartment complex, just a few minutes after the report of the attempted burglary, which came in around 9:20 a.m.

They were all taken into custody after a brief standoff that had eyewitnesses saying they'd never seen anything like it, as heavily-armed officers took up positions around the SUV.

“The only thought I had was, ‘Get the hell out of here,'” said Allie Burger, of Oaklyn, who was driving across the Cooper River bridge at the time. “It looked to me at that moment that it could have played out any which way.”

When the three men were captured, police said they also found a defaced handgun and the dum-dum bullets—a common euphemism for hollow point or soft point expanding bullets, which are designed to mushroom and do more damage when they hit a person.

Each of the three men were charged with robbery, burglary, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a defaced firearm, possession of an unlawful firearm and possession of dum-dum bullets.

All three face an individual full cash bail of $325,000.