Each weekday, the Department of Justice will highlight a case that has resulted from Operation Legend. Today’s case is out of the Western District of Missouri – the district where the Department of Justice launched Operation Legend, in honor of four-year-old LeGend Taliferro who was shot while he slept in his home in Kansas City, Missouri. Since its inception, Operation Legend has yielded close to 1,500 federal, state, and local arrests.
United States vs. Michael D. Moore and Jamahl D. Jones
“Operation Legend is successfully taking armed, violent criminals like these off the street to make our neighborhoods safer,” U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison said. “It is also important to note that these successes are only possible in great part to the collaborative partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in support of this initiative.”
Michael D. Moore, 30, and Jamahl D. Jones, 33, each were charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm in a two-count criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. Both were arrested on Monday, Aug. 17, following a brief standoff and foot chase. Officers who had been surveilling Moore followed him into a parking lot in order to arrest him on an outstanding felony arrest warrant for robbery and armed criminal action. As officers drove into the parking lot with their red and blue lights flashing, Moore got out of the BMW SUV, took cover behind the vehicle, and drew a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun from his waistband. Moore pointed his firearm directly at police officers as he attempted to take a position of cover behind his vehicle. Moore fled as additional police cars entered the parking lot, throwing away his handgun. Moore then laid on the ground about 15 feet away from the firearm, and was taken into custody. Officers recovered the firearm, which was loaded with 16 live rounds in the 16-round high-capacity magazine and one live round in the chamber. Officers identified the firearm as having been reported stolen.
Jones, who was standing beside the vehicle as officers approached, was also detained. Officers found marijuana in Jones’s front shorts pocket. Inside the vehicle, officers found a Sadarius 9mm semi-automatic handgun, which contained a magazine and 16 live rounds of ammunition with a live round in the chamber. Officers also found a box that contained 18 live rounds of 9mm ammunition, a 9mm handgun magazine, and a small safe that contained a 9mm handgun magazine and approximately 123 grams of marijuana.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Moore was involved in two armed robberies that led to the issuance of the arrest warrant and surveillance.
The victim of an armed robbery on July 1, 2020, told police officers that Moore, his brother-in-law, is an organizer for the “Honk for Peace” group that typically assembles at local intersections. Moore invited the victim to join one assembly. When the victim arrived with another person as a passenger in his vehicle, he contacted Moore, who directed him to drive across the street to meet him. After parking his vehicle, the victim told officers, two unknown men approached the passenger side door and Moore got into the rear passenger seat. Moore allegedly put a Taurus .40-caliber handgun against the left side of the victim’s head and ordered him to “give me everything.” One of the other men leaned inside the window and began going into the passenger’s pockets as Moore did the same. Moore removed $407 from the victim’s pants pocket, the affidavit says, and grabbed a pink backpack that contained a .40-caliber handgun.
On July 21, 2020, Moore allegedly approached another victim who was putting oil in his car outside a gas station in Kansas City, Mo. Moore allegedly approached him with a gun and ordered him to “empty your pockets.” Moore and another man stole approximately $140 and fled the scene.
Moore was later identified through surveillance photos at the gas station, the affidavit says.
On July 29, 2020, police officers stopped a BMW SUV that also was captured in the gas station surveillance photos. Jones, the only occupant of the vehicle, was arrested. Officers found a Masterpiece Arms 9mm pistol with a high-capacity extended magazine inside the vehicle, as well as 146 grams of marijuana packaged in multiple individual baggies in the driver’s side floorboard.
Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a felony to be in possession of any firearm or ammunition. Moore has a prior felony conviction for robbery. Jones has two prior felony convictions for burglary, and prior felony convictions for theft, tampering with an airplane/motorboat, possession of a controlled substance, and tampering with a motor vehicle.
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