A report of a shirtless man with a gun in a Grace Chapel parking lot sent Lexington police racing to lock down the church campus Friday afternoon, only for officers to discover the supposed weapon was a musket-era powder horn being polished by a man waiting to pick up his wife from work.
The Lexington Police Department Dispatch Center received the report at approximately 3:20 p.m. Friday, according to a statement from the department shared in a Lexington Police Department Facebook post. The call described a shirtless male carrying a gun in the parking lot of Grace Chapel, located at 59 Worthen Road. Responding officers quickly established a perimeter and placed the building on lockdown, a building that, at the time, was populated with numerous programs, including those involving children.
Officers conducted a systematic search of the campus before locating the man a short time later. An on-scene investigation determined he had been waiting to pick up his wife, who works at Grace Chapel, and that due to the heat he had stepped outside his vehicle to polish a powder horn, a musket-era container shaped like a bull's horn traditionally used to store gunpowder. Police say the man is an avid period reenactor, and that security video corroborated his account of events.
Multiple Cruisers, Closed Roads During the Search
The response required a significant show of force, with multiple cruisers converging on the scene and police closing both the Grace Chapel parking lot and parts of Worthen Road during the investigation, per the department's statement. The Lexington Police Department headquarters sits less than a mile away at 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, which allowed for a rapid multi-cruiser response once the report came in, according to a Town of Lexington press release.
Police acknowledged that the scale of the response was likely unsettling for anyone on campus that afternoon. The department said the incident caused concern among community members, especially parents with children in the programs underway at the time. Grace Chapel's primary campus includes an 80,000-square-foot Community and Life facility with classrooms, youth spaces, and a children's wing known as Kidstown, according to The Pluralism Project at Harvard University.
A Town Where Reenactment Gear Is Part of Daily Life
The mix-up underscores a peculiar local dynamic: Lexington is a town where authentic 18th-century military gear, including powder horns, is a familiar sight rather than an alarming one. Official equipment guidelines published by the Lexington Minute Men specify that historical reenactors carry period-authentic accoutrements such as powder horns, musket tools, and cartridge boxes during public portrayals. Every April, the town hosts Patriots' Day commemorations featuring dozens of armed Revolutionary War reenactors, unit drills, and musket demonstrations on the Lexington Battle Green and surrounding streets, according to American History Central.
State law also draws a clear line between that kind of historical equipment and modern firearms. Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 140, Section 121, black powder muzzle-loading weapons and replica items designed around pre-1899 systems fall under distinct antique firearm definitions compared to modern cartridge firearms, though legislation enacted in August 2024 updated regulations regarding black powder components, according to the Massachusetts Legislature.
Church Had Recently Trained for Exactly This Scenario
Grace Chapel and Lexington police had spent months preparing for the possibility of a real threat on campus. On February 21, the Lexington Police Department conducted active threat and de-escalation training at Grace Chapel for members across its four regional locations, a session led by a department detective for attendees from the Lexington, Watertown, Wilmington, and Foxborough campuses, as reported by The Lexington Observer.
In March, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security awarded Grace Chapel $45,399 through the state's Nonprofit Security Grant Program to enhance physical security, part of nearly $5 million distributed statewide to protect nonprofits from hate crimes and violence, according to Mass.gov. Founded in 1948, Grace Chapel operates regional campuses across Lexington, Wilmington, Watertown, and Foxborough, drawing several thousand attendees weekly to its services and community programs.
The Lexington Police Department said it hoped releasing details of Friday's investigation would help alleviate concerns surrounding the incident and make clear that there was no threat to anyone in the building or on the campus at any point. The statement was signed by Town Manager Steve Bartha and Police Chief Michael McLean.
