MA: hunter found with drugs, no licenses for shotguns in Raynham

Apparent hunter found with drugs, no licenses for shotguns in Raynham

Nov 16, 2010

RAYNHAM - A 50-year-old Taunton man was arrested in Raynham on Saturday after he was found on the property of a John Deere tractor store in a pickup truck containing two fully loaded shotguns and illicit drugs, according to the Raynham Police Department.

Antonio Gomes, of 239 Burt St., Taunton, was arrested and charged with carrying a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition and possession of a Class B drug at Padula Brothers, 184 Broadway, at 4:56 a.m.

Raynham Police Sgt. James Donovan spotted a black GMC Sierra pickup truck at the rear of Padula Brothers (where a large inventory of expensive equipment is kept) when the lawn tractor store was not open, police said.

"I asked the operator for his driver's license and he told me he did not have it with him," Donovan wrote in a police report. "While I was speaking to Gomes I observed a double barreled shotgun on the passenger's seat with the muzzle on the floor and the buttstock on the seat. I asked Gomes if the shotgun was loaded and he said no. I told him I was going to check and he said 'maybe it is loaded.'" Gomes then reached over to the gun and opened the action to eject two live shotgun rounds, police said. At that point, Gomes was asked to exit the vehicle and was put in handcuffs when he told Donovan that he didn't have his hunting and gun licenses, police said.

Police noted hunting equipment inside his car, including a tree stand, bows and arrows and other material. There was a graphic on the entire back window of his truck that depicted a scene of three deer, police said.

According to the Massachusetts Firearms Records Bureau database, Gomes currently has no active FID cards or LTC firearms. He previously had a FID card that expired in 2000.

Police said they then found a crumpled cigarette pack that held four white pills, which Gomes said were Percocet that were prescribed to him for back pain. Gomes said that his prescription was at home. Police also confiscated a hand rolled marijuana cigarette that was held in a console in the truck. Police found another fully-loaded 12 gauge shotgun (of the pump action variety) under the back seat, Donovan wrote in his report. Fourteen 12 gauge shotgun shells were stored as evidence.

Gomes told police that he was there because he worked for nearby Lopes Construction.

"I searched the area Gomes had driven from and found the tire marks from his truck led to an area next to the gate to Lopes Construction and there were numerous fresh deer footprints where he had driven," Donovan wrote in the report.

Gomes was released on personal recognizance at 7:30 a.m. by the Clerk Magistrate, police said.

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