Evergreen man accused of using furnace and 3D printer to produce machine guns

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – A traffic jam in August led investigators to an inconspicuous home in Evergreen. What they say they discovered may be shocking to anyone who hasn’t followed the explosions of homemade machine guns on city streets across the country.

A sworn affidavit from an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says law enforcement officers found 74 metal and plastic devices designed to convert semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic weapons.

According to testimony filed in federal court, agents also found a 3D printer in the living room and a casting mold, furnace and forging equipment in a carport next to defendant Ishmell Jarah Williams’ bedroom. Prosecutors accuse him of using this equipment to produce the devices he is accused of selling.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bradley Murray on Wednesday rejected prosecutors’ request to keep Williams in custody pending trial. The judge acknowledged that the threat posed by machine gun conversion devices, sometimes called Glock switches or chips.

“They are just inherently dangerous,” he said.

Murray, however, said the law required him to release Williams if he could create conditions that would ensure he would appear for court hearings and would not pose a danger to the public. Those conditions include a requirement that Williams not possess drugs or weapons.

Since 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Mobile has charged 45 to 50 people related to machine gun conversion devices. However, Williams, 21, is the first to be charged with manufacturing the devices.

Experts say conversion equipment from China has flooded America. However, Acting U.S. Attorney Sean Costello told FOX01 News last year that authorities suspect southwest Alabama residents are producing homemade versions.

“The vast majority of them are actually 3D printed,” he said. “As for their sources, we’re still figuring it out, but it appears at least some of them are produced locally.”

Converted guns from Evergreen to Montgomery

The ATF statement mentions illegally modified weapons on the streets of Montgomery. The agent wrote that he began investigating after the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency stopped a car in August and found an AR-style weapon with a “slip-in” automatic search device that transformed it into a machine gun.

The statement states that information provided by the driver led investigators to Williams’ home on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Evergreen. After determining that Williams did not have a license for the devices, agents obtained a search warrant. In addition to the 3D printer and forging equipment, the complaint states that agents found a gold AR device on a shelf in the defendant’s bedroom, 25 to 30 gold conversion devices in various stages of finishing in the bedroom, and 45 such devices in the bedroom, according to the complaint. corridor in front of the bedroom.

The agent wrote that the 3D printer was loaded with gold filament and there were additional 3D printed and metal AR devices in the bedroom. The affidavit says agents also found a foundry mold and foundry sand for making metal products.

The testimony also shows that Williams sent the informant in October 2023 a photo of 25-30 gold devices intended for AR weapons. According to the affidavit, the message included a video of the defendant firing a modified AR pistol.

Court records show Williams denied any knowledge of the manufacture or sale of conversion equipment, and also initially denied having knowledge of any equipment at the residence. The agent wrote that Williams admitted that the 3D printer located at the residence was his, but first stated that he had not used it in five years.

Between 2017 and 2021, the ATF seized 5,454 machine gun parts across the United States. This represents an increase of 570% compared to the previous five years. Evergreen Police Chief Tristan Robinson said he could not comment on Williams’ arrest because it is a federal investigation. He added, however, that illegally modified weapons were found not only in large cities.

“They’re everywhere – Birmingham, Mobile, even small towns,” he said.

“A lot of people are just now making them.”

The fact that a 21-year-old from rural Conecuh County is charged with manufacturing the switches supports some experts’ view that the process is not particularly sophisticated. David Robinson, a firearms safety instructor with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, said at Wednesday’s demonstration that it’s even easier than buying them online.

“You buy them on Etsy and Temu and things like that,” he said. “You know, a lot of these things have stopped. And many people are just now doing them.

In an attempt to keep Williams in prison, Assistant Prosecutor Jessica Terrill was unsuccessful in arguing that he posed both a flight risk and a danger to the community. She noted that he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges in Florida and that the judge in that case revoked his bond after he failed to meet bail conditions.

“What is disturbing is that he did not comply with the rules and conditions set by the court,” the prosecutor said during Wednesday’s hearing.

Terrill also noted the nature of the allegations themselves.

“We’re not talking about a one-switch guy,” she said. “We’re talking about someone who has 75 of them. … And not only that, but he had a 3D printer.”

Assistant public defender Colin Fitzpatrick told the judge that his client was presumed innocent, which was “sufficient ground” to defend against the charges.

“He is very motivated to handle this case the right way,” he said. “He has strong family ties here. (…) He will have his day in court to properly address these allegations.”

Firearms experts say that in addition to the huge number of bullets that can be fired in a matter of seconds, the devices are dangerous because they are difficult to control. Authorities say the switches played a role in a mass shooting at a birthday party in Dadeville, Alabama, last year and in a shooting at a New Year’s Eve celebration in downtown Mobile in 2022.

Costello said his office is pursuing any Glock swap cases that prosecutors believe they can prove.

“We hope that we will be able to do that, that we will cut off the sources of supply, that we will be able to identify them and dissuade anyone else from getting involved in this,” he said last year.

FOX10 News reporter Daeshen Smith contributed to this report.