Five Children in Apartment with Two Loaded Guns

BOSTON, Nov. 8, 2012—A convicted drug dealer was arraigned today as an armed career criminal after Boston Police recovered two loaded firearms from a room occupied moments earlier by a child, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

MAGNETIC TOM (D.O.B. 1/28/82), a.k.a. TOM MAGNETIC, was charged with two counts each of unlawful possession of a firearm, improper storage of a firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition. Because of prior drug distribution convictions in 2003 and 2005, he was additionally arraigned as a Level II armed career criminal.

Dorchester District Court Judge Michael Coyne set bail at $100,000 cash, the amount recommended by Assistant District Attorney Gretchen Sherwood.

Sherwood told the court that members of the Boston Police Youth Violence Strike Force, aided by the department’s SWAT team, executed a Suffolk Superior Court search warrant this morning at Tom’s apartment on Washington Street in Dorchester.

After knocking and announcing their office but receiving no response, officers made a forced entry into the apartment at about 5:00 a.m. They were greeted by a dog believed to be a pit bull, which was removed from the scene by Boston Animal Control.

Officers located Tom, the target of the warrant, in a bedroom with a 28-year-old woman and a 1-year-old child. Also in the apartment were four other children ranging from 6 to 11 years of age. Officers offered the woman and her children the opportunity to be evaluated by Boston Emergency Medical Services. She declined and left with the children.

Officers read Tom his Miranda rights and notified him that the warrant authorized them to search his apartment for a firearm.

“You’re here to look for guns,” Tom allegedly said. “I need to protect my family. I got two guns – a Hi Point .40 and a deuce deuce.”

Tom then directed the officers to a plastic bag of clothes inside the room. That bag contained a Hi Point .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun. Tom also directed the officers to a night table near the bed, under which was a Ruger .22 caliber handgun. Tom further directed the officers to “extra ammo” in the drawer of that night table; the officers found 28 rounds of ammunition and a feeding device or magazine with no corresponding firearm.

Despite the presence of five young children in the apartment, neither of the loaded firearms was locked or secured in any way. Both were loaded, the Hi Point with eight rounds of ammunition and the Ruger with six rounds of ammunition.

A search of the apartment yielded no further contraband but did turn up evidence that Tom resided there and thus had control over the two loaded firearms and ammunition.

Tom was represented by attorney Anthony Troiano. He will return to court on Dec. 3.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.