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Nov 10, 2024

Man caught packing machine gun and ammo in subway 'posed no threat': attorney

A deadly machine gun found on a man trespassing in a Bronx subway tunnel was loaded with 25 live rounds and had a defaced serial number, prosecutors said Thursday. The gun’s alleged owner, Abraham

A deadly machine gun found on a man trespassing in a Bronx subway tunnel was loaded with 25 live rounds and had a defaced serial number, prosecutors said Thursday.

The gun’s alleged owner, Abraham Sosa, 21, was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court on charges that included possession of a machine gun and ammunition, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and criminal trespass.

Two days earlier, on Tuesday, Sosa was arrested after cops said they spotted him walking past a “no trespassing” sign toward the entrance to a northbound tunnel in the Kingsbridge Road subway stop for the B and D lines about 4:30 p.m.

Prosecutors in court said police officers noticed Sosa urinating in public on a subway platform before moving into a “restricted tunnel area” — a part of the platform not open to the public — which justified a trespassing charge.

When cops closed in, Sosa tried to flee, then ended up in a scuffle with them that revealed a more threatening situation, officials said.

During the struggle, the muzzle of a rifle emerged from a “partially open” backpack Sosa was carrying, according to Kiki Oyegoke-Olafimihan, an assistant Bronx district attorney.

According to a criminal complaint, cops found a black rifle with one live round in the chamber and 24 live rounds in the magazine.

The gun’s serial number was defaced, Oyegoke-Olafimihan said.

According to a police source, Sosa told cops he was carrying the machine gun because he didn’t want his mother to find it, and that his mom had threatened to throw him out of the house if she ever caught him with a gun.

“The rifle is a semiautomatic rifle with the ability to accept a detachable magazine and has the capacity to accept an ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip,” the criminal complaint said.

The gun did not go off during Sosa’s scuffle with the arresting officers, which left both cops injured.

Sosa was held on $25,000 cash bail. He has two prior arrests.

But Sosa’s attorney, Kelli Ogbuzuo, argued that Sosa had not entered any restricted area and suggested that he had only stepped to the platform’s edge after legally swiping his MetroCard to enter the station.

“I’m not sure how the police can arrest him for trespass in the subway,” she said.

The attorney said that since the gun was found in a closed backpack, cops had no authority to search it.

Ogbuzuo said Sosa lives in the Bronx with his mother and is enrolled in school part-time.

The lawyer also denied that the gun-toting Sosa assaulted the officers, adding that he “posed no threat to them.”

She said the police body-worn camera footage would substantiate Sosa’s excessive-force claim.

During the arrest, a witness got involved and sparred with the cops, kicking one officer’s body-worn camera to the subway tracks and stealing an officer’s cell phone, NYPD officials said.

That suspect, Christopher Mayren, was charged with obstructing governmental administration, criminal mischief, possession of stolen property and aggravated harassment. Police said Mayren has one prior arrest.