Teen, man accused of illegal machine gun possession in traffic stop arrest

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland police announced they made two arrests Wednesday afternoon, with one teen and one man now accused of felony charges for illegal gun possession, including a modded fully automatic pistol.

During a traffic stop conducted around 4:43 p.m. near Northeast 74th Avenue and Northeast Lombard Street, the Portland Police Bureau's Focused Intervention Team arrested a 16-year-old "wanted on a menacing case and linked to multiple gun-related crimes."

As PPB explained in a release, "During his arrest, officers found a semiautomatic handgun outfitted with an aftermarket auto-sear switch that made the pistol capable of fully automatic fire."

The 23-year-old driver of the vehicle, Demaria D. Preston, was also arrested. Police said he had an "illegally possessed revolver." The teen and the man were both booked into respective detention centers on multiple charges and both of them were "referred to services under the Portland Ceasefire program," police said.

Under federal law, handguns equipped with after-market auto sear switches fit the definition of a machine gun, police said. These types of modded guns can allow them to fire "an entire 17-round magazine in less than half a second." The mods are widely available online and are something Portland police said they encounter "regularly."

The 16-year-old was booked into the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Center and faces charges of unlawful machine gun possession, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of unlawful possession of firearms. Preston was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center and is accused of unlawful possession of firearms and unlawful machine gun possession. Both are also charged with violating the city ordinance of unlawful possession of a loaded firearm in public.