An off-duty Boston police officer spotted a wanted man crossing the street near Metropolitan Avenue in Roslindale on Friday, setting off a foot chase that ended with officers finding him hiding in bushes behind a Wellsmere Road home and recovering a loaded handgun with 13 rounds. Javeon Phillips, 23, of Roxbury, was taken into custody after shedding his clothes mid-chase in an apparent attempt to shake pursuing officers.
According to the Boston Police Department, the off-duty officer saw Phillips attempting to cross the street at the intersection of Washington Street and Metropolitan Avenue and recognized that he had an active warrant. When officers moved in near 49 Metropolitan Avenue to stop him, Phillips fled on foot as they approached, kicking off a pursuit that wound through the Roslindale neighborhood. Members of the department's Youth Violence Strike Force joined the chase and lost sight of him in the area of Wellsmere Road.
Officers soon located a pile of discarded clothing near 3 Denton Terrace, apparently shed by Phillips as he tried to slip away unnoticed. The search for him intensified from there, drawing on one of the department's newest tools.
New Drone Program Helps Corner the Suspect
Boston police credited their brand-new Drone as First Responder program with helping locate Phillips, who was found hiding in bushes behind 65-67 Wellsmere Road. The department launched the pilot program on the very same day as the chase, partnering with Motorola Solutions and BRINC to send FAA-certified, officer-piloted drones ahead of ground units to 911 calls and ShotSpotter alerts. That timing made this pursuit one of the earliest operational tests of the new aerial fleet, which was rolled out specifically to improve officer safety and help units navigate the city's streets more quickly.
Officers took Phillips into custody at the rear of the Wellsmere Road property. During the investigation, police recovered a firearm in the area of 3 Denton Terrace: a 9mm Springfield Armory XDM-9 fitted with an attached laser and flashlight, loaded with 13 rounds of live ammunition. A standard full-size version of that pistol model typically ships with a 19-round factory magazine, though the one recovered by police held 13 live rounds.
Third-Offense Gun Charge Carries Mandatory Prison Time
Phillips faces a lengthy list of charges, including carrying a firearm without a license as a third offense, carrying a loaded firearm without a license, possession of a large-capacity firearm, possession of ammunition without a Firearms Identification Card, breaking and entering, and trespassing. The third-offense firearm charge is especially serious: under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 269, Section 10, a first conviction for carrying an unlicensed firearm carries a mandatory minimum of 18 months in a house of correction that a judge cannot suspend, but repeat convictions escalate the exposure to 3½ to 5 years in state prison, according to the Aprodu Law firm.
The large-capacity firearm count adds another layer of risk. Massachusetts law classifies any weapon capable of accepting more than 10 rounds as a large-capacity firearm, and a conviction for possessing one without a valid FID card carries a mandatory minimum of 2.5 years and up to 10 years in state prison, per the Law Office of Lefteris K. Travayiakis.
This is not Phillips's first brush with Boston police over firearms. He was previously arrested in Dorchester on November 14, 2023, alongside two other suspects following a shooting incident in Brighton that led to the seizure of two handguns, a case Hoodline covered at the time. That prior case helps explain why he now faces the enhanced third-offense charge.
Arraignment Set for West Roxbury Court
Phillips is expected to be arraigned in West Roxbury District Court, which holds criminal jurisdiction over offenses in Roslindale, West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, and parts of Mattapan and Mission Hill, according to Mass.gov. It remains an open question whether Suffolk County prosecutors will seek a pretrial dangerousness hearing under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 276, Section 58A, a tool the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office has used in felony firearm cases to hold defendants without bail for up to 120 days.
The arrest was made by the Youth Violence Strike Force, a specialized multi-agency unit the Boston Police Department established in the early 1990s to focus on street-level enforcement against illegal firearms and gang violence, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The unit has been central to Boston's Operation Ceasefire strategy and has made similar arrests in the neighborhood before, including a July 2024 traffic stop that escalated into a foot chase and a firearm seizure in Roslindale, and an April incident in which officers said a traffic stop turned up a Glock rigged for full-automatic fire.
The case comes as Boston has continued to see multi-year declines in gun violence. Department data show total shooting victims citywide dropped 4% from 127 in 2024 to 122 in 2025, a 34% decline compared to the city's five-year average.
