What started as a scooter sighting on York Road ended with a gun arrest, according to Baltimore police.
On May 14, officers say they spotted a scooter matching the one reported stolen in an armed robbery on the 5400 block of York Road. When they tried to pull it over, the 21-year-old rider allegedly took off but did not get far. Police say he was taken into custody a short time later, and officers recovered a loaded handgun fitted with an automatic conversion switch. The man was transported to central booking.
As reported by FOX45, officers had responded to the area after the robbery call when they saw a scooter matching the victim’s description. The department told FOX45 that the seized handgun had an automatic “switch” that can convert a semiautomatic pistol to fully automatic fire.
What an “automatic switch” means
Federal prosecutors and the ATF classify these conversion devices, commonly called “Glock switches” or auto-sears, as machinegun-conversion parts because they allow continuous automatic fire. They have been the subject of federal trafficking and possession cases, and the U.S. Department of Justice has pursued prosecutions of sellers and users of the devices while warning that they dramatically increase a firearm’s lethality. For recent examples, see a press release from the Department of Justice.
Scooter robberies and enforcement in Baltimore
The York Road arrest comes amid a run of moped and scooter robberies in Baltimore, and police say they are trying to break the pattern. Local reporting shows juveniles were arrested in connection with moped carjackings earlier this month; see coverage from CBS Baltimore. A separate report detailed Baltimore teens nabbed after nighttime moped stickup, adding to the picture of how often small two-wheeled rides are turning up in serious crimes…