BOSTON — A 15-year-old was arrested Friday afternoon in Dorchester after Boston police found a loaded handgun with its serial number scratched off in his backpack — steps from the Murphy K-8 School.
Officers from the Youth Violence Strike Force and District C-11 were patrolling Pope Hill Street around 2:49 p.m. on February 28 as part of an ongoing firearm investigation when they spotted six masked juveniles walking toward Morrissey Boulevard. One of them matched the description of a 14-year-old who had been reported missing.
Officers followed the group into a business parking lot and made contact. The missing 14-year-old was located — but no weapon was found on him. Instead, officers noticed suspicious behavior from another juvenile in the group. During a frisk, police secured his backpack and found an FL Model D .380 ACP handgun with a defaced serial number and two live rounds in the magazine.
The 15-year-old was arrested without incident and charged as a delinquent with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, carrying a loaded firearm, and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number.
The missing 14-year-old was safely returned to his guardians.
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Second gun seized in 48 hours
The Dorchester arrest came just one day before another Youth Violence Strike Force bust in Jamaica Plain. On Saturday evening, officers pulled over a vehicle near 71 Lamartine Street for a missing inspection sticker and a busted headlight.
The driver couldn't produce a license or registration and grew visibly nervous. When officers directed him to check the glove compartment, the passenger — Widvenson Dorcent, 20, of Jamaica Plain — spoke to the driver in another language before reluctantly unlocking it. Inside, officers found a Heckler & Koch USP handgun loaded with one round in the chamber and nine in the magazine.
Dorcent was arrested and charged with carrying a firearm without a license and possession of ammunition without an FID card.
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A growing pattern
Two loaded guns off the streets in 48 hours — one from a teenager's backpack near a school, one from a glove compartment during a routine traffic stop. The Youth Violence Strike Force, a BPD unit specifically tasked with getting illegal firearms out of Boston's neighborhoods, has been at the center of both.
The defaced serial number on the 15-year-old's weapon makes it functionally a ghost gun — untraceable and impossible for investigators to link to a purchase history. Massachusetts passed a sweeping gun safety law in 2024 targeting ghost guns and expanding red flag provisions, but cases like Friday's suggest the weapons are still finding their way into the hands of minors.
The investigation in Dorchester remains ongoing.
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