Background
Between April and July 2012, 31-year-old Michael Henry purchased six guns at In Site Firearms in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Henry was straw purchasing the weapons for felon Andrew Thomas, who couldn’t pass a Brady background check due to a forgery conviction.
On September 13, 2012, Plymouth Township Police Officer Bradley Fox was shot and killed by Thomas after pursuing him following a hit-and-run car accident. Thomas ambushed Officer Fox on a recreational path and fired four shots, fatally injuring Fox and wounding his K-9 partner Nick before turning the gun on himself.
Officer Fox, a U.S. Marine who survived two tours of duty in Iraq, left behind his wife Lynsay and a young daughter; the couple was expecting their second child at the time of Officer Fox’s death. His murder and the straw purchase that enabled it helped lead to the Pennsylvania state legislature’s passage of the “Brad Fox Law,” which established mandatory minimum sentences for repeat straw purchasers. In August 2013, Michael Henry was sentenced to 20 to 66 years in prison for straw purchasing a total of nine guns for Andrew Thomas.