NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced indictments against two Hamilton Heights individuals Friday for manufacturing eight usable, untraceable “ghost guns.”
Francisco Martinez, 38, and Maria Ovalles, 29, were indicted in a New York State Supreme Court on multiple counts of criminal possession of a weapon, criminal sale of a firearm, prohibition on unfinished frames or receivers and possession of an imitation pistol.
Vance said in late June at around 9:45 p.m., Martinez fired several gunshots — later determined to be from "ghost guns" — off the roof of his apartment with Ovalles on West 153rd Street.
“As alleged, these defendants turned their apartment into a small-scale gun factory, where they manufactured eight untraceable, deadly weapons with parts they ordered online, and tested their homemade firearms on the rooftop,” he said.
Police responding to a ShotSpotter activation discovered ten nine-millimeter cartridge casings on the roof of the building and later determined Martinez was the gunman after surveillance footage captured him climbing the roof with at least one visible gun.
Martinez and Ovalles were arrested the next morning while exiting their apartment.
Vance said a search warrant conducted inside their apartment that evening allowed authorities to find eight unmarked semiautomatic pistols, imitation pistols, more than two hundred rounds of assorted ammunition, multiple manufacturing kits and other gun parts. Investigators also determined parts were ordered online from eBay as well as companies from California and other states.
The district attorney used Friday's announcement to urge Congress to enforce regulations – similar to action that the Department of Justice proposed – to force 3-D printed guns, unfinished frames, receivers, component parts have serial numbers as well as impose a license for individuals that manufacture or build these weapons.
“Ghost guns are no longer an abstract, looming threat – they are here, and we need federal regulation to stop them," Vance said.