Suspect who shot suspect arrested in Brooklyn Park with same switchblade gun he had during his 2023 drug arrest

A man suspected in a May 29 shooting was charged with illegal possession of a machine gun after Brooklyn Park police recovered a handgun equipped with a “switch” following an early pursuit of the month – the same weapon he allegedly had on him when he was arrested for selling drugs. more than a year ago.

According to federal charges unsealed Thursday, a Brooklyn Park police officer working as a security guard at Oro Lounge on June 8 spotted Raquan Rahjai Johnson, 19, of St. Paul, and another man also suspected of having shot at a man involving “what appears to be automatic fire.

That officer notified other police officers on duty at Brooklyn Park, who then attempted to stop a Chevrolet Malibu Johnson and others were in as they drove away from the club. The driver of the Malibu accelerated and began fleeing before officers used a “precision stopping technique,” ​​according to the criminal complaint, to stop the car before it reached dangerous speeds.

The other suspect, identified only by his initials in the complaint, led police on a brief foot chase. A police dog found a firearm equipped with a machine gun conversion device, also called a “switch,” which allows a weapon to be fired fully automatically by simply pulling the trigger.

Police arrested all six occupants of the vehicle, but Johnson was the only one charged by federal prosecutors Friday. During their arrests, officers recovered five firearms between the foot chase and in and around Malibu: a .40 caliber Glock Model 23 equipped with a gold switch, a .40 caliber Sig Sauer pistol, a Smith & Wesson .380 caliber pistol, a Glock Model 19 9mm pistol that had previously been reported stolen, and the switch-equipped Glock Model 20 10mm pistol that was found in the “flight path” of the other suspect.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) then found a video posted to social media showing Johnson displaying a Glock pistol with a gold switch attached. According to the charges, the video appears to have been filmed in the men’s restroom at Oro Lounge just before his arrest.

The ATF agent whose affidavit was used to bring the federal firearms charge against Johnson wrote in his complaint that Johnson also owned a Glock Model 23 firearm with a gold switch when the Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies arrested him in January 2023 for selling controlled substances. Johnson was sentenced as a juvenile for this offense. It is unclear how he regained access to the gun after his conviction.

Johnson made a brief appearance in federal court in St. Paul on Thursday, during which a judge ordered him to remain in custody and set a detention hearing and preliminary examination for June 26. According to court records, no attorney has yet been appointed to handle further matters in this case on Johnson’s behalf.