A 14-year-old was arrested in Boston’s Back Bay on Wednesday after police say they found a loaded ghost gun tucked into his waistband near the Snowden International School campus on Newbury Street. Officers say the Smith and Wesson pistol was loaded with 10 rounds of live ammunition when they stopped the teen walking between school buildings in the area of Newbury and Exeter streets.
According to Universal Hub, the school was alerted around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday that a student had a gun, and an officer assigned to the department’s school engagement unit was told shortly after that the school had received a report about a student with a weapon, as WHDH reported. That officer then spotted the student walking between the Snowden campuses near Newbury and Exeter streets, prompting additional officers to respond to the area.
Officers took the teen into custody and, during a frisk, recovered the firearm from his waistband, per the same account. Police determined the weapon was a Smith and Wesson ghost gun loaded with 10 rounds of live ammunition.
Charges Filed as a Juvenile
The teen was charged as a delinquent with unlawful possession of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm on school grounds, and unlawful possession of ammunition, the station’s report notes. He was not named because of his age, and no information has been released about his school enrollment status, how he obtained the firearm, or whether he had entered a school building while carrying it.
Under Massachusetts law, knowingly possessing or controlling a firearm — loaded or unloaded — is addressed by Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269, Section 10, subject to statutory exceptions. No further case details, such as an arraignment date or outcome, have been made public.
Not the First Gun Arrest at the Newbury Street Campus
This is not the first time police have reported seizing a firearm from a student connected to the 150 Newbury St. campus. In January 2024, Boston police arrested a 15-year-old student at the Muriel S. Snowden International School after receiving a report that the student possessed a gun, according to The Boston Globe. That boy was arrested around 11:40 a.m. at the same address, and police identified the weapon in that case as a Taurus 9mm handgun loaded with 10 rounds in the magazine.
The two incidents, separated by nearly three years, both involved teenagers found with loaded handguns tied to the same Back Bay school address, though the available evidence does not establish that they reflect any broader pattern of gun incidents at the school. Student gun-possession arrests have also surfaced elsewhere in the region: Suffolk County police on Long Island separately reported arresting a 16-year-old student for possessing a firearm at a school in Smithtown, though details of that case remain limited.
