DETROIT – Federal agents in Detroit say a freeway chase ended with the discovery of a pistol outfitted with an illegal machine-gun conversion device and has been linked to a shooting just days earlier.
Henry Leon Hutchinson Jr. is now charged for illegally possessing a Glock 19 9mm pistol allegedly fitted with a machine-gun conversion device, often called a “switch.”
A chase and a toss
On May 5, 2026, a Michigan State Police trooper said they spotted a black Nissan sedan speeding eastbound on I-96. The trooper activated emergency lights to initiate a stop, but the feds said the Nissan exited to Grand River and slowed, “but did not stop.”
Then, the trooper said they saw the driver -- described as “a black male with braids or dreadlocks,” throw an object “consistent with a firearm” out of the driver-side window, and onto the grassy area near the freeway shoulder.
The car kept going, allegedly running a red light and making a left turn from the right-turn lane before police stopped the pursuit.
When troopers searched the area where the object was thrown, they said they found a Glock 19 with a “loaded extended magazine” and a blue machine-gun conversion device (MCD) attached.
Linking the Glock to a shooting
A license plate reader near the Grand River exit allegedly captured a similar Nissan at the same time. Capturing the plate number, a check then found that Hutchinson’s mother had rented the vehicle May 4 through May 6, the feds said.
The next day, police said they stopped the same car, and Hutchinson was driving, with another passenger inside.
A preliminary review of cell data, according to the feds, then tied Hutchinson’s phone to the location of the attempted traffic stop on May 5, and preliminary ballistics linked shell casings fired from the recovered Glock to an April 2026 shooting in Detroit.
ShotSpotter data and audio from a shooting on April 29 allegedly showed that “a potential machine gun may have been used,” and preliminary cell-data analysis then linked Hutchinson’s phone to the shooting area around that time, the feds said.
Messages about ‘buttons’ and a photo
Federal law defines a machine gun as “any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.”
ATF investigators said they believed Hutchinson understood what these devices are, citing a couple of phone conversations.
In one example from November 2023, an associate allegedly asked Hutchinson to send a picture of “button compared to green,” noting that “button” is slang “known to refer to an MCD.” Hutchinson allegedly sent an image depicting a suspected firearm equipped with a green MCD.
Records show Hutchinson is incarcerated at the Fayette County Prison in Uniontown, PA, in connection with a different case, and is in custody of the MDOC/Fayette County Sheriff’s Office. Hutchinson is scheduled to appear in Detroit on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at 1 p.m.