Hey, there! Log in / Register
14-year-old with an ankle bracelet and a loaded gun was driving around Dorchester Friday night, badly enough to attract police attention, DA says
By adamg on Tue, 11/08/2022 - 9:33pm
As he sat on the woman's couch, taking a breather from being chased by cops, the kid sighed he just couldn't go back to jail, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office recounts. But the woman convinced him to get out of her apartment, which he had broken into, and police officers, already looking for him, soon caught up with him.
The 14-year-old was arraigned in Suffolk County juvenile court today on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, carrying a loaded firearm without a license, felony breaking and entering in the nighttime, unlicensed operation, resisting arrest and numerous operating offenses, following his arrest on Friday in Dorchester, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. Judge Michael Coyne ordered him held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing on Wednesday.
The DA's office says that BPD gang-unit officers were on patrol in the area of Columbia Road and Quincy Street shortly after 10:30 p.m. on Friday when they spotted a vehicle with broken brake and license-plate lights and an expired registration sticker:
After the light turned green, the car failed to yield to oncoming traffic while turning left, almost causing a collision.
Officers pulled over the vehicle and instructed the operator, later identified as the juvenile, to shut off the vehicle. The juvenile refused. Officers noticed a fanny-pack style bag strapped to the juvenile’s chest, and saw a firearm on the passenger side floor. When officers seized the firearm the juvenile fled, and pursuing officers saw him enter a dwelling on Quincy Street. After taking the juvenile into custody in the stairwell of the dwelling, officers spoke with a resident who told them that the juvenile had forced his way into her apartment and sat on her couch, telling her he could not go back to jail. The woman, who did not know the juvenile, eventually convinced him to leave her apartment.
The DA's office adds the teen was wearing a GPS tracking device as a condition of release on a previous, unspecified arraignment.
Also: he had a passanger. Daniel Washington 32, was ordered held in lieu of $5,000 bail. He was charged with gun and ammunition offenses, assault and battery, resisting arrest and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the DA's office reports.
Innocent, etc.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
So they both were charged with
o they both were charged with gun possession but only one gun was found. How does that work? Just being in a vehicle with a gun counts as possession of said gun? That doesn't seem right.
Right?
If this were regularly happening to white folks, I guarantee you there would be more public outrage. I see this pretty frequently in my work and in my community, where all signs point to the situation being that of a 30-something employed family man with no serious criminal record getting a ride with a neighbor or unregulated cab, then the 20-year-old driver is pulled over and arrested for something gang-affiliated, and the passenger is arrested and charged right along with the driver.
one of them will eventually
one of them will eventually be dropped. they may wait to see if fingerprints are possible. Also the fanny pack might have evidence that shows the gun was there. Although in my opinion the 32 year old is responsible regardless.
Riding dirty?
Lets get something easy off the board first. Someone in that car knew the gun was there and there is a 99% chance they put it there. All that person has to do is own up to it and everyone else is fine. Sure, I'm sure 1 out of every 1,000 times in a situation like this there just happens to be someone else's gun left in the car, but give me a break.
lol sure. This case here everyone in that car knew how that firearm got to the floor. Whether or not they go to jail over it is a different story, but to say some "innocent" person here is going to get in trouble is being disingenuous. That all being said, I get the concept of friends growing up together in tough circumstances and not having to rat on each other as that might put themselves in danger as well. But how long do we feel bad for someone who got in that car in the first place knowing something bad was going down? I mean come on here.
And this happens to white folks in the same situation. Hell it happened all the time in the 1980s in those great bank robbery type situations. "Oh sorry, I'm just the driver, I didn't know these guys were going to rob a bank and kill a bank teller."
14 year olds are not guilty
They are delinquent. They may be dangerous and the public needs to be safe, but there is a distinction.
Sharing is caring
Maybe it was thug boy's gun, but it was in the possession of the passenger.
Why were they all charged?
Let's use a different example. A witness (reliable) sees a person flash a gun and then get into a blue car with MA Reg UHUB101. Cops pull over UHUB101 and search the car and find a gun in the glove compartment. There are 4 people in the car, none of them talk to the police, and none of them have a gun on them or a license to carry one. Do you let them all go? Send them all to jail? Only one person was seen with the gun, did anyone else know about it?
FYI the concept is called "constructive possession." Don't have to have something on you to "possess" it.
Yep
Oh I'm familiar with constructive possession, and I get why y'all can't let them go at the scene. But let's not pretend there aren't situations where someone got a ride and legit didn't know what was going on with the driver, and did get convicted. I work on mostly impounded cases and in a clinician role so can't tell you specific people, but it's definitely not uncommon to see situations where it just doesn't make sense. Someone doesn't typically start packing and gangbanging at 35 while employed and raising a family. Yet if they're Black/Latine, they live in the hood, and have a blue-collar job, their demographic context tends to overshadow the behavioral pattern that just doesn't fit the whole illegal gun thing.
It happens....
But come on eeka you know most 30 somethings starting families aren't riding dirty with fanny pack 14 year olds with ankle bracelets.
The more common situation (which I'm sure you know) is a group of young black males going out on a Saturday night where one of the young men has a gun and drugs on him and is doing his own thing. Car gets pulled over, gun in the glove box with drugs and everyone gets jammed up. I always thought the judicial system should give you one chance to "come clean". Hell maybe even two in the cases of this kid. The problem is that once some innocent 3 year old gets shot giving people first (let alone second chances) seems like kind of a bad idea.
Yeah I know
Not likely in this underage situation, and of course both happen, but "better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer" and all.
Yep....
But if people knew all you had to do to avoid prison is to put the gun in the glove box we all go back to square one. In the end someone put the gun there. He is bringing everyone else down, not the "system".
impact > intent
I mean, yes, we don't want a system that's like, do whatever you want.
But regardless of whose actions caused an innocent person to have their liberties taken, the impact on the person is the same. We don't want innocent people convicted.
IANAL and had not heard of
IANAL and had not heard of "constructive possession" before. Thanks for the explanation @Pete Nice.
Pot
Haven't they done the same with pot, back when you could get arrest for position?
Yes and other substances
And when it's enough that it's with intent to distribute, it can really fuck up someone's life.