Northern District of Texas | Violent offender armed with a switch charged with firearms crimes

A violent criminal armed with a Glock switch has been charged with a firearms offense, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton announced.

Jaterrian Damon Johnson, 28, was arrested last Wednesday and charged with illegal possession of a firearm. He made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rebecca Rutherford on Monday morning.

According to the complaint, plainclothes police officers were conducting enhanced surveillance of an apartment complex near Walnut Hill Lane and Greenville Avenue on Aug. 7 when they witnessed a black Kia Sorrento committing traffic violations while leaving the parking lot. (The enhanced police surveillance was in response to an incident in which Dallas Police Department officers tackled suspects who had driven a stolen pickup truck into a patrol vehicle.)

Patrol officers stopped the Kia. As they walked back to their patrol car with the license, officers noticed that Mr. Johnson, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was making furtive movements and repeatedly turning around to look at the officer.

When they returned to the Kia, they discovered a high-capacity Glock magazine on the passenger floor under Mr. Johnson's seat. In the glove compartment, they found a .40 caliber Glock pistol with a live round in the chamber and a Glock switch embedded in the back plate.

A search of his criminal history revealed that Mr. Johnson had previously pleaded guilty to a state charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to three years in prison.

A criminal complaint is merely an accusation of wrongdoing, not proof. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

If convicted, Mr. Johnson faces up to 15 years in a federal prison.

The investigation was conducted by the Dallas Police Department's Violent Crimes Task Force, the FBI's Dallas Field Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives' Dallas Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Withers is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program that brings together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a Violent Crime Reduction Strategy to Strengthen PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence in the first place, establishing targeted and strategic law enforcement priorities, and measuring results.

It is also part of Operation Texas Kill Switch, a nationwide initiative targeting machine gun conversion devices, also known as “switches,” that convert commercially available semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic weapons that can fire faster than military machine guns. Led by U.S. Attorneys Leigha Simonton, Alamdar Hamdani, Damien Diggs and Jaime Esparza, Operation Texas Kill Switch relies on partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as rewards offered by Crime Stoppers.