BOSTON — According to the Boston Herald, a heavily armed 16-year-old runaway from upstate New York was arrested by Amtrak and MBTA police at South Station Tuesday just minutes before she was about to board a train to the Big Apple, authorities said.
Police say the girl, whose name was withheld because she’s a juvenile, had a 7.65 mm handgun, a .22-caliber revolver with a couple of spent cartridges inside and “hundreds of rounds” of ammunition stashed in her backpack.
Transit police, led by Amtrak Detective Joe Davis, made the arrest within a half-hour of being alerted by New York State Police that the girl and her boyfriend might be somewhere in the area.
“We had to work pretty quick,” said Amtrak police Capt. Bob Smith.
Davis, armed with a photograph of the girl and backed by four T officers, found the girl waiting in the ticket line.
“(Davis) called out the girl’s first name,” said one source. “She looked at (him) and answered, `Yes?’ “
The girl will be arraigned in Boston Juvenile Court today on two counts of unlawful carrying of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and being a fugitive from justice.
Authorities say the girl and her boyfriend broke into her mother’s house and stole a safe, which may have contained the firearms. At some point, the girl then took a bus to Boston.
Amtrak and T police said they don’t know where the girl’s boyfriend is, though he may have been planning to meet her in Connecticut.
“There’s no reason to look for the boyfriend that I’m aware of,” said Smith.
“I know she was supposed to meet someone in New London, Conn. . . . but there was no one there.”
Smith said the spent shell casings found in the revolver aren’t any cause for alarm.
“There’s no reason to think it (was fired) in the last day or two,” he said.
Smith said the girl was arrested without incident, and that few people were even aware of the arrest.
“We kept it pretty quiet,” he said.