Dorchester Traffic Stop Turns Up a Glock Fitted to Fire Automatically, the Fourth Such Gun Boston Police Have Announced Seizing This Year

Boston police arrested a 25-year-old East Boston man early Sunday after finding a loaded handgun fitted with a device that makes it capable of automatic fire under the driver's seat of his car, the department said. It is at least the fourth time this year that the Boston Police Department has announced recovering a Glock pistol converted to fire automatically, according to a Boston Uncut review of the department's 2026 news releases.

Members of the Youth Violence Strike Force stopped a white car at about 1:38 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, near Dorchester Avenue and Van Winkle Street in Dorchester, according to the department's release. Officers had been in the area for an earlier call reporting a person with a gun when they saw the car traveling at a high rate of speed down Washington Street with heavily tinted windows, police said. The car continued onto Dorchester Avenue from Talbot Avenue before officers pulled it over.

As officers approached, the driver was leaning toward the driver's side mirror, and a sunshade on the rear driver's side window kept officers from seeing into the back of the car, according to the release. Police said the driver told officers he was leaving a party on Washington Street, the same location as the earlier person-with-a-gun call, and was heading home to East Boston. Officers wrote that they had seen the car traveling around Dorchester "with no intention of driving towards East Boston."

Officers ordered the driver out of the car and found a firearm under the driver's seat, police said. The department described the gun as a Glock 20 10mm handgun with an attached "sear-switch," which it said makes the firearm capable of automatic fire, loaded with 15 rounds in a high-capacity magazine.

Police identified the driver as Takhari Walter Robinson, 25, of East Boston. He was expected to be arraigned in Dorchester District Court on charges of possession of a loaded machine gun, possession of a machine gun, carrying a loaded firearm without a license, possession of ammunition without a firearms identification card and possession of a large-capacity feeding device, according to the department. He was also cited for motor vehicle violations. The charges are allegations, and he has not been convicted.

The department's news site shows three earlier 2026 cases involving converted Glocks, all also made by the Youth Violence Strike Force.

On March 10, officers monitoring a group riding scooters and a dirt bike erratically near 12 Harlow Street in Dorchester chased a man into Hannon Park and recovered a Glock 26 "with a switch affixed to the rear slide making it capable of being fully automatic," with one round in the chamber and 12 in the magazine, according to a March 11 release. The man, 26, faced charges including possession of a machine gun and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number, police said.

On March 31, officers conducting a firearm investigation near 435 Hyde Park Ave. in Roslindale recovered a Glock 29 from the waistband of a 19-year-old rear-seat passenger, according to an April 1 release. The department said "a switch was attached to the rear slide which makes the firearm fully automatic," and that the gun had one round in the chamber and nine in the magazine.

On June 17, officers patrolling the Morton Village Apartments in Mattapan stopped and frisked a man and found a Glock 19 "with an auto-sear switch and an obliterated serial number" and a high-capacity magazine holding 28 rounds, according to a June 19 release. He faced charges including receiving an untraceable firearm and possession of a loaded machine gun, police said.

Each of the people charged in the earlier cases is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The releases give ammunition counts for each of the four guns. Counting a round in the chamber where the department listed one, the guns held between 10 and 28 rounds when they were recovered. The settings varied: a foot chase from a park, a stop in a parking lot, a frisk at an apartment complex and an overnight traffic stop.

Massachusetts treats the converted guns as machine guns. Under Chapter 269, Section 10(c) of the General Laws, a person who possesses a machine gun without the required state permission, or who owns, possesses or carries an "automatic part" or similar device as defined in state firearms law, "shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life, or for any term of years," subject to the same minimum requirements as the state's unlicensed-carrying law. That law, Section 10(a), sets a sentence that may not be reduced to less than 18 months.

The same weekend, police announced a separate armed robbery arrest that relied on city cameras. At about 11:43 a.m. Friday, Oct. 23, a delivery driver on Normandy Street in Dorchester told officers that a masked man displayed a handgun, ripped a gold chain from his neck and ran toward Devon Street, according to the department. District B-2 detectives reviewing city cameras saw a man matching the description get into a gray Ford Explorer, shared an image of the vehicle and tracked it north on Interstate 93, police said. State troopers stopped the vehicle in Lawrence that afternoon. Police said a 32-year-old Dorchester man was charged with armed and masked robbery, assault by means of a dangerous weapon and larceny from a person, and that a search of the vehicle turned up a .45-caliber firearm and a face mask. The charges are allegations.

The department asks anyone with information about illegal firearms to contact police, and accepts anonymous tips through its CrimeStoppers line at 1-800-494-TIPS or by texting "TIP" to CRIME (27463).