Residents in Nashville's Cayce Homes reported hearing bursts of loud gunfire tearing through their yards early Thursday morning, and by the time officers were done chasing down a suspect, they had recovered a machine-gun-converted Glock, a stolen handgun, and a switchblade. Ta'Marion Baker, 19, now faces multiple felony charges after K9 units tracked him down hiding nearby with a backpack full of weapons.
According to WSMV, Metro Nashville Police Department officers responded to the 600 block of Frith Drive inside Cayce Homes after the gunfire reports came in early Thursday. A resident notified dispatch that a man carrying a backpack was seen in a backyard, according to the affidavit cited by the station. Baker allegedly ran from officers and jumped a fence before K9 units located him hiding nearby with multiple weapons stashed in his backpack.
Inside that backpack, officers say they found a brown Glock pistol fitted with an automatic switch, along with two other guns, one of which was determined to be stolen, per the affidavit. A search of Baker also turned up a blade, the report states. He was arrested and charged with assault or reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, firearm theft, evading arrest, and possessing a switchblade during a felony. Baker is currently held on a $22,500 bond.
Why a Glock Switch Changes the Legal Stakes
The device found on Baker's pistol is not a minor accessory in the eyes of the law. Fitting a semi-automatic Glock with an aftermarket conversion switch lets the weapon fire at rates exceeding 1,000 rounds per minute by bypassing the internal disconnector that normally limits it to one shot per trigger pull, according to Hoodline. That mechanical detail likely explains why neighbors described what they heard as machine-gun fire rather than an ordinary exchange of shots.
Under federal law, an auto-sear or Glock switch is classified as a machine gun on its own, regardless of whether it is even attached to a firearm, carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. In May 2025, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed legislation explicitly banning the devices at the state level, making Tennessee the 27th state to do so and giving state prosecutors concurrent authority to charge these cases alongside federal agencies, according to Everytown Research & Policy. Before that law took effect, local prosecutors relied almost entirely on federal authorities to bring conversion-device charges.
A Complex Recovered Alongside Recurring Violence
Cayce Homes, which opened in 1941 as Nashville's largest public housing development, is now in the middle of Envision Cayce, a $600 million mixed-income redevelopment effort by the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency aimed at replacing 900 low-income units with 2,390 mixed-income residences, per the agency's own planning documents. The complex has not been a stranger to gunfire in recent years. An October 2025 shootout between masked groups inside the complex left an 18-year-old dead and three others wounded, Hoodline previously reported in its piece on the fatal Cayce Homes shootout.
The 600 block of Frith Drive itself carries a history that predates Thursday's arrest. Metro Nashville police say the same block was the site of a fatal shooting in March 2022 inside a residential apartment, an incident that prompted a search for an armed 14-year-old suspect at the time. Frith Drive functions as a primary residential corridor within the Cayce Homes complex, which sits on roughly 63 to 69 acres in East Nashville.
Part of a Wider Crackdown on Conversion Devices
Baker's arrest fits into a pattern local police have been actively confronting for months. An August 2026 multi-agency Metro Nashville Police Department operation targeting violent crime across Davidson County led to 44 arrests and the recovery of multiple machine-gun conversion switches along with illicit drugs, according to Hoodline's earlier report on the citywide sweep. That same month, Metro Nashville police arrested a 28-year-old on Interstate 24 who was carrying a loaded handgun equipped with a Glock switch alongside high-purity fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Nationally, the trend has accelerated fast. ATF data shows federal agents recovered 5,454 machine gun conversion devices between 2017 and 2021, a 570 percent jump compared to the previous five-year period, according to figures cited by a report published on Medium. Law enforcement officials nationwide have frequently reported being outgunned by suspects wielding the modified pistols.
The stolen handgun recovered from Baker's backpack also points to a broader local problem with gun theft. Metro Nashville Police Department data shows that of 1,151 firearms reported stolen across Davidson County in 2025, 887 — nearly 77 percent — were taken directly from motor vehicles, according to figures compiled by RF Factor Insights. Police have run regular public education campaigns urging gun owners to lock up unattended vehicles, though it remains unclear where the specific pistol found on Baker was taken from.
