GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. — A Grand Island man is now in custody following what the Erie County Sheriff's Office says had the potential to be a very dangerous situation with a small child involved.
It sits in a residential Grand Island neighborhood with a playground across the street. But Erie County Sheriff's deputies say the home at 98 Carl Road was a base for dealing drugs with an armory of five dangerous weapons. That included one with a fully automatic switch device, so it could fire like a machine gun, stashed inside. And investigators say a two-year-old child was living there along with what they say was an aggressive dog.
So now the child's father, 42-year-old Anson Whitted, faces various counts for drug possession and sales, illegal weapons, and endangering the welfare of a child.
Erie County Sheriff John Garcia told reporters, "When I heard there was a two-year-old involved, an aggressive pit bull, in a residential area, handguns - it's a nightmare."
Deputies say Whitted was actually arrested last Friday during a traffic stop on the Route 190 highway right near the Niagara Street exit. DJ Granville, Chief of the EC Sheriff's Narcotics and Intelligence Unit says, "The traffic stop occurs on the 190 around Niagara Street in that area. There's a two-year-old in the back seat that's not in a child car safety seat - that's running freely. You got a female who's attempting to get to her phone. And you got him, who's a nervous wreck because he has drugs on him. And it's a very chaotic scene - it's a very dangerous scene - dangerous for our uniformed deputies to be doing."
The female driver said to be in a relationship with Whitted, was not yet charged. Child Protective Services were called in as well.
Garcia adds "Important to note that all these weapons were loaded. Thank Goodness he did not have a weapon when he was stopped."
Sheriff Garcia says Whitted also had cocaine and crack with the dangerous substance fentanyl to potentially lace that into any drugs he would sell. "Their handling of fentanyl which is so very dangerous and we've seen cases around the country where people, law enforcement have been overcome by the fentanyl."
Sheriff's investigators say Anson Whitted has a previous criminal record. He was actually charged before with two violent felonies. And he was previously checked out with an investigation in Buffalo back in 2021 which ended with no arrest at that time.
Deputies say they got a subsequent complaint about him in Grand Island where apparently he had only lived for a month.