Springfield Police Arrest Man with Loaded Weapon After ShotSpotter Activation

In Springfield, a ShotSpotter alert has led to the arrest of 22-year-old Melvin Mercedes-Rodriguez, following the alleged discharge of a firearm within a residential area on Monday evening.

Officers were dispatched around 8:50 p.m. to the 100 block of Dawes Street after the system, designed to detect and locate gunshots, was triggered; they quickly apprehended a man matching the shooter’s description found on Catherine Street, although it is not explicit how officers determined the man’s resemblance to the alleged shooter, such information was provided in the arrest report, according to details released by the

Springfield Police Department

.

The

Springfield Police Department

, including members from Squad C and the C3 Unit, subsequently detained Mercedes-Rodriguez on the 700 block of State Street, where they discovered a loaded large capacity firearm concealed in his waistband; this firearm’s serial number had been purposefully obfuscated, equipped to hold 13 rounds.

The arrest also yielded approximately 14 grams of crack-cocaine, another offense heaped upon Mercedes-Rodriguez’s charges which encompass firing a weapon within 500 feet of a building, illegal firearm possession, drug possession with intent to distribute, among other related felonies.

Mercedes-Rodriguez faces multiple legal challenges, including possession of a high-capacity magazine or feeding device and the particularly serious accusation of carrying a firearm on school grounds—a location often considered sacrosanct and inviolate from such incidents.

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