WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – An Oakland County man is accused of going on Instagram Live with a Glock that had been modified into a machine gun less than a year after getting out of jail.
Raphael Jermaine Williams Jr., 19 or 20, of Waterford Township, was named in a criminal complaint unsealed March 3.
Instagram Live video
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives said they reviewed an Instagram profile late in 2022 and identified Williams as the owner.
Between December 2022 and March 2023, several images and videos were posted showing Williams brandishing firearms, according to authorities.
Court records said an Instagram Live broadcast was posted around 10:30 a.m. Feb. 18. Williams was inside his home and talking to someone else during the stream, officials said.
“Bro, what you on, man? Where’s your 40 at?” Williams said, according to the complaint.
Williams was brandishing a gun with an extended magazine and a chambered round of ammunition, officials said. The gun had white tape wrapped around the magazine.
Search at Waterford Township home
On March 2, ATF agents and Oakland County deputies searched Williams’ apartment on Village Green Lane.
Officials said they found a black Glock 22 Gen 2 .40-caliber pistol in a bag next to Williams’ bed. It was loaded with 19 rounds, according to authorities.
There were two black bands and several tan rubber bands wrapped around the base of the weapon, the criminal complaint says.
Officials said the gun matched the one seen during the Feb. 18 Instagram Live broadcast.
Interview
During an interview with special agents, Williams admitted that he had obtained the gun about seven days before it was found by authorities, court records show.
He confirmed that he was the person pictured with the gun in multiple images, officials said.
Williams explained that the Glock had a “switch,” the criminal complaint says. He said it had been obtained from a car that was stolen a few days earlier, according to authorities.
“A Glock Switch is a small device that replaces the back plate and typically protrudes from the back of the slide on a Glock pistol,” the criminal complaint says. “When installed, the device applies pressure to the trigger bar and disables the firearm’s ability from limiting one round of ammunition to be fired per one trigger pull, making the firearm a machine gun. Additionally, an uninstalled Glock Switch, by itself, is a machine gun under federal law.”
Charges
Williams told officials that he had a previous felony guilty plea, and that he had been sentenced under Michigan’s Homes Youth Trainee Act.
He pleaded guilty to stolen motor vehicle, third-degree fleeing a police officer, malicious destruction of police property, and assaulting/resisting/obstructing a police officer on April 5, 2022, in Sixth Judicial Circuit Court.
He spent 129 days in the Oakland County Jail and received two years of felony probation, through May 17, 2024, court records show.
The criminal complaint concludes that Williams knowingly possessed a gun while on probation.