GREENSBORO, N.C. — A crime-reduction unit is paying off in a big way for Greensboro police.
The Crime Gun Intelligence Center helps officers make breakthroughs. It proved especially valuable after last year's shoot-out outside Electric Tequila.
There were rounds of gunfire outside the bar and grille in Greensboro and more than a hundred shell casings collected by Greensboro police officers.
"We don't even know what the motive was," said Captain Anthony Price with Greensboro Police. " It's pretty significant to have 14 guns in a gunfight. It's something you hear in a war zone."
Four months after the wild shootout at Electric Tequila, GPD detectives were able to connect 14 guns to the shooting.
GPD Sergeant Matthew Allred said they arrested five suspects this week thanks to resources at the department's recently revamped Crime Gun Intelligence Center.
It allowed them to connect the guns to suspects.
"Those shell casings become almost like a fingerprint or DNA from a crime," Allred said. "We're able to look at these weapons and determine that they were used in more than one instant in many cases."
Less than three months into the year Greensboro has already seen 10 homicides.
The latest was at Culture Lounge on Spring Garden Street last week where two people died.
Police have yet to make any arrests.
Sergeant Allred said their intelligence center is a tool to analyze guns used in crimes to make arrests.
"It's enabled us to link cases together quickly and hopefully target some of these violent offenders and repeat trigger pullers," Allred said.
Captain Price said he knows how important this is to families.
"I often tell people if they were able to see some of the victims of families of violent crimes and the devastation they have to go through every day," Price said. "Whether it be driving by a street where they lost a loved one or an old news article that pops up on TV. Really that's what drives us."
Police said technology is great but support from the public is what helps them clear cases and give families justice.