DETROIT – Officials used Instagram photos and stories to link guns found inside a car to a passenger who ran away from Detroit police, got caught, escaped, and was immediately arrested again, they said.
Cops investigate SUV parked on sidewalk
Detroit police officers said they were in the area of Grand River Avenue and St. Mary’s Street around 8 p.m. June 22 when they noticed a Dodge Durango parked on a sidewalk.
They pulled up to the SUV and turned on the squad car’s overhead lights. As officers got out, they said Aion Overman got out of the Durango’s front passenger seat and ran away.
Overman, age 19 or 20, refused to stop for officers who ran after him, according to authorities. He was eventually taken into custody after a short foot chase.
One of the officers opened the passenger door of the Durango to talk to the driver, who was reaching into the back passenger area with a “black object,” according to the criminal complaint.
When the driver refused to stop reaching into the back, the officer handcuffed him to the steering wheel.
The officer said he found two handguns in the back passenger seat area of the Durango.
Overman escapes from police car
Overman was handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car after the foot chase, authorities said.
While police were investigating, Overman managed to open the back door of the scout car and run away a second time, court records show.
He was quickly caught and taken back into custody.
Guns found
Officers said they found a loaded Sig Sauer P365 handgun behind the driver’s seat of the Durango and a Glock Gen5 handgun under the back middle seat.
The Glock had a blue machine gun conversion device attached and one round in the chamber, according to the complaint. It didn’t have a magazine inserted, but a loaded extended magazine was found in the back seat area.
Guns seen on Instagram
Agents and police officers reviewed Instagram stories linked to Overman after his arrest.
A story that was active around 3 a.m. June 23 showed Overman in the front seat of a car wearing the same shorts he had been arrested in, authorities said.
It was tagged as being taken at 1:43 p.m., and Overman appeared to have a gun with an extended magazine tucked into his waistband, police said.
That gun appears to match the Glock found in the Durango, according to court records.
Police investigating Overman in connection with a home invasion case had been monitoring an Instagram account linked to him, they said.
One witness sent officers a screen recording of Instagram stories that had been posted by the account on June 16. Overman was shown sitting with several guns and a large amount of cash at his feet.
At least three of the guns in the instagram stories appeared to be Glock-style firearms equipped with machine gun conversion devices, according to authorities. One of the guns matched the Glock found in the Durango, police said.
An ATF special agent trained on privately made firearms viewed pictures of the Glock and determined that a “Glock switch” had been attached. A switch is a machine gun conversion device.
Charge
The criminal complaint concludes there’s probable cause that Overman knowingly possessed a gun with a machine gun conversion device attached. He is accused of illegal possession of a machine gun.
