Two men have been found guilty for their involvement in an armed standoff on a busy Massachusetts highway in 2021. The incident, which lasted over eight hours during the Fourth of July weekend, caused significant traffic disruptions.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced on Friday that Jamhal Tavon Sanders Latimer and Steven Anthony Perez were convicted on multiple firearm charges related to the standoff. They are set to be sentenced on July 16.
Ryan stated, “The defendants disrupted several communities and endangered the safety of numerous travelers during a busy Fourth of July weekend.” She emphasized that both Latimer and Perez disregarded laws and ignored directives from multiple police agencies at the scene.
State police troopers (Via Kevin Baker/Getty Images)
Massachusetts has strict laws regarding firearm licensing. Ryan highlighted the danger posed when individuals possess weapons, particularly high-capacity firearms like those used by the defendants, without complying with state regulations.
Contact information for Latimer and Perez was not available.
The two men were associated with a group called Rise of the Moors, which claimed they were headed to Maine for training when a state trooper approached them for assistance. This encounter led to the standoff on Interstate 95, during which some group members fled into nearby woods.
Nearly a dozen individuals were arrested, and state police seized three AR-15 rifles, two pistols, a bolt-action rifle, a shotgun, and a short-barrel rifle during the incident.
The men, dressed in military-style clothing and equipped with rifles and handguns, did not possess licenses to carry firearms in Massachusetts.
