A Metropolitan Police Department sergeant faces multiple weapons charges, including for machine gun possession, after he and two other men were stopped by federal agents and local police Monday night in Southeast D.C.
Sgt. Montez Clark, 27, was arrested and charged with assault on a federal police officer, fleeing from law enforcement and leaving after colliding, D.C. police said.
He was behind the wheel of a blue Chevrolet Camaro that crashed into a vehicle with three Diplomatic Security Service agents inside, police say.
Clark and two other men – Sakou Yates, 25, and Russell Campbell, 23 – also were charged with: possession of a machine gun; carrying a pistol without a license; possession of an unregistered gun; possession of unregistered ammunition; possession of a large-capacity ammunition-feeding device and violation of the National Firearms Act. Campbell also was charged with felon in possession.
MPD officers saw a Camaro with “an equipment violation” at about 9 p.m. Monday in the 4700 block of Southern Avenue SE, a police report says.
When police tried to stop the Camaro, Clark took off and crashed into the vehicle with Diplomatic Security Service agents inside, police say. The service is the law enforcement arm of the State Department.
Officers and federal agents stopped the car and found two Glocks, including one with a switch, and multiple types of ammunition.
All three men were arrested and taken to the Sixth District cellblock for processing, the report says. Police seized the Camaro as evidence.
News4 asked the State Department about the condition of the three agents after the crash but did not immediately hear back.
News4 asked Mayor Muriel Bowser about the arrest at a press event Tuesday.
“We’re going to watch the process very closely. We don’t want anybody working for us, especially in that capacity, if they’re engaging in that type of behavior,” she said.
Glock switches, sometimes called “giggle switches” in D.C., are coin-sized accessories typically added to Glock-style handguns, News4 reported in an investigation into their impact and attempts to change D.C. law. The switches turn a semiautomatic handgun into a machine gun. Without them, a single bullet is fired with every trigger pull as the gun was designed. With the addition of the switch, the gun fires bullets until the magazine is empty.
Clark, a Fifth District sergeant who joined MPD in July 2019, was placed on administration leave pending the outcome of the case and an investigation by MPD’s internal affairs office.
All three men were due in court for an initial appearance on Tuesday.
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