A former employee at a northeast Salem gun shop pleaded guilty earlier this month to helping three others break into the business to steal guns and other merchandise.
That comes nearly a year after the dealer reported stolen 33 firearms — including AR-style rifles, and Ruger and Smith & Wesson pistols — a large amount of ammunition, eight silencers and Invicta brand watches, totaling about $30,000, according to a Salem Police Department affidavit.
Police arrested 45-year-old Brian Quiring, of Dallas, in December 2021. He pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary and aggravated first-degree theft in Marion County Circuit Court.
Quiring, a former employee of Cravenho Arms, admitted to giving information to the three others which helped them break into the business at 1420 McDonald St. N.E., also listed as Cravenho Construction & Building, according to his plea petition.
Judge James Edmonds sentenced Quiring on Sept. 15 to two years and two months in state prison.
Five handguns in total have been recovered from the burglary, according to police reports.
Surveillance video at the business on Aug. 23, 2021, showed three men, masked and wearing heavy clothing, entering the property and leaving carrying loaded bags from 1:41 to 4:06 a.m, the reports said.
In the months that followed, Salem police obtained search warrants for Google data related to cell phones located at the business at that time, and interviewed suspects — eventually identifying the men as Christopher Beck, Steven Kizer and Jonathan Ott.
Police learned from the interviews that Quiring had described where the items were stored and helped draw a map of the property, while the others cut a fence and used crowbars to break into the Cravenho offices, according to police reports
Beck, 39, of Keizer, pleaded guilty in March to first-degree burglary, aggravated first-degree theft and possessing a firearm as a felon.
Steven Keizer, 26, of Salem, pleaded guilty in April to first-degree burglary and aggravated first-degree theft.
Both were sentenced to two years and six months in prison.
Ott, 35 of Keizer, also pleaded guilty on Aug. 22 to first-degree burglary, aggravated first-degree theft and possessing a firearm as a felon. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
His attorney filed a notice Sept. 8 in Marion County Circuit Court that he would be appealing his sentence, court records showed.
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
JUST THE FACTS, FOR SALEM – We report on your community with care and depth, fairness and accuracy. Get local news that matters to you. Subscribe to Salem Reporter starting at $5 a month. Click I want to subscribe!
Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
