Police find assault rifle, 8,300 rounds of ammunition and body armor in Long Island

[Indus]

A Long Island man impersonating a federal Air Marshal has been arrested for having a frightening cache of weapons, ammo and body armor, officials said Friday.

Investigators are trying to unravel what Mark Vicars was doing with the weapons but said he has no apparent links to terrorism.

Acting on a tip, authorities stopped Vicars, 49, in his 2014 Dodge Durango on the Jericho Turnpike in Syosset about 7:40 a.m. Thursday, officials said.

Vicars, who lives in Syosset, turned on flashing lights and brandished a fake shield identifying himself as a federal Air Marshal when stopped, officials said. Cops found he was carrying a knife and a .380-caliber pistol.

They then searched his home, finding a loaded assault rifle, a ballistic body armor vest, a tactical vest and three high-capacity magazines carrying 8,300 rounds.

Although he had a fake badge, a parking placard, hat and other items indicating that he worked for Homeland Security, Vicars has never been employed by any law enforcement agency, authorities said.

He has no criminal record, officials said.

Vicars was hit with a slew of weapons charges as well as possession of a forged instrument.

The stop was conducted by Special Investigation Squad detectives in joint operation with the New York office of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Transportation Security Administration, police said.

The arrest took place a day after Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik killed 14 people and wounded 21 more during a bloody rampage at a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif.

Scary considering guns are not easy to legally procure in New York. What was he planning?

 

[ElFenix]

i doubt he had an assault rifle.

 

[Subyman]

three high-capacity magazines carrying 8,300 rounds.

Lol, those are some big magazines.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

link to story?

 

[theeedude]

He's not a Muslim, so it's not scary at all...

 

[OutHouse]

Ok why the hysteria over having a lot of ammo? I know many people who do a lot of shooting and having 10K rounds of ammo is normal if not on the low side. on a typical Saturday day at the range is very common to go through 4-5K rounds. Is there a NY law that limits how much ammo one can have?


where i live the only law this guy broke and deserved to be arrested for is impersonating a LEO.

reporters are stupid.

three high-capacity magazines carrying 8,300 rounds.

that's a 2700 round magazine.... lol yea ok.

 

[trenchfoot]

Where's the NRA when you need them? This guy could really use their help, or is it that the body armor isn't protected by the 2A? /s

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I wonder if those who feel it's ok for him to have the body armor and weapons would feel the same if his name was something Islamic in nature?

 

[glenn1]

Scary considering guns are not easy to legally procure in New York. What was he planning?

Who knows, drive to work maybe? Owning any of the items found or transporting them in your car doesn't make you a terrorist or someone who is plotting a violent act anymore than someone carrying 83,000 copies of Playboy in their truck is a rapist.

 

[OutHouse]

so i see 7 different guns. figure about 1,000 per gun.

i dont see anything scary about this..

 

[theeedude]

He needed 8000 rounds in case 8000 intruders came to his house. You don't want to be done killing intruder 7999 and realize you are out of ammo and there is still one more coming over the mountain of dead intruder bodies to steal your big screen TV.

 

[MongGrel]

Flashing a fake badge and having the thing loaded in the back seat is going to put him away awhile I'd think.

It probably was not technically a real operational "Assault Rifle", but just splitting hairs there again. If it was he's probably really up the creek even worse, and no license for it.

 

[-slash-]

It's not the guns or the ammo that are the issue here until he decided to impersonate an air marshal.

 

[MongGrel]

so i see 7 different guns. figure about 1,000 per gun.

i dont see anything scary about this..

Is that a real photo of it ? He is in deep crap then.

Looks like something the Aryan Brotherhood or a biker gang would have stockpiled.

It doesn't look like he was driving to a local gun show/range.

*shrug*

 

[2Dead]

Here's a link to the story since the OP is not accurate.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cops-find-assault-rifle-arsenal-man-backseat-article-1.2455344

It sounds like he had a single pistol with him and everything else was found at his house.

Vicars, who lives in Syosset, turned on flashing lights and brandished a fake shield identifying himself as a federal Air Marshal when stopped, officials said. Cops found he was carrying a knife and a .380-caliber pistol.
They then searched his home, finding a loaded assault rifle, a ballistic body armor vest, a tactical vest and three high-capacity magazines carrying 8,300 rounds.

Sounds like he's guilty of breaking several of NY's gun laws unless he has a license for the pistols and the rifle is registered as an assault weapon in NY's SAFE database OR modified so that its not semi-automatic anymore.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Scary considering guns are not easy to legally procure in New York. What was he planning?

He looks moar like a wrasler!!

 

[alien42]

so i see 7 different guns. figure about 1,000 per gun.

i dont see anything scary about this..

sure, there is nothing scary at all about a heavily armed civilian who is impersonating a federal marshal.

 

[brycejones]

The weapons are a non-issue for me that is what the 2A is for. But the flashing lights and a fake badge? Yeah that's the step to far.

 

[Darwin333]

Cops found he was carrying a knife and a .380-caliber pistol. In the back seat, they found a loaded assault rifle, a ballistic body armor vest, a tactical vest and three high-capacity magazines carrying 8,300 rounds.

Holy shit those are some high capacity magazines! I'd say that I want one but fuck that would be heavy.

 

[Darwin333]

Here's a link to the story since the OP is not accurate.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cops-find-assault-rifle-arsenal-man-backseat-article-1.2455344

It sounds like he had a single pistol with him and everything else was found at his house.



Sounds like he's guilty of breaking several of NY's gun laws unless he has a license for the pistols and the rifle is registered as an assault weapon in NY's SAFE database OR modified so that its not semi-automatic anymore.

Can just getting found with guns in your car give them enough to get a search warrant for your house? Or was it the fake badge?

 

[Darwin333]

He looks moar like a wrasler!!

He sorta looks like that guy from Breaking Bad.

 

[MongGrel]

Here's a link to the story since the OP is not accurate.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cops-find-assault-rifle-arsenal-man-backseat-article-1.2455344

It sounds like he had a single pistol with him and everything else was found at his house.



Sounds like he's guilty of breaking several of NY's gun laws unless he has a license for the pistols and the rifle is registered as an assault weapon in NY's SAFE database OR modified so that its not semi-automatic anymore.

This makes more sense.

I'm sure if he was flashing lights and presenting a fake badge they would sure as hell have justification to search his house. Or easily obtain a warrant to do so.

 

[Carson Dyle]

You can't be too bright to pull out a fake badge when pulled over by the police. That and the fact that someone felt compelled to tip the police to this guy, he must be a bit of a nutcase. Glad to have him off the streets.

Apart from the police ID, there are probably tens of thousands of guys just like him in the US of A - weapons, ammo stockpiles, body armor, camo outfits, tactical knives and all.

 

[Indus]

Here's a link to the story since the OP is not accurate.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cops-find-assault-rifle-arsenal-man-backseat-article-1.2455344

It sounds like he had a single pistol with him and everything else was found at his house.



Sounds like he's guilty of breaking several of NY's gun laws unless he has a license for the pistols and the rifle is registered as an assault weapon in NY's SAFE database OR modified so that its not semi-automatic anymore.

Guess they updated it, I'll update the OP

 

[RampantAndroid]

This makes more sense.

I'm sure if he was flashing lights and presenting a fake badge they would sure as hell have justification to search his house. Or easily obtain a warrant to do so.

SCOTUS case on NY's SAFE laws, anyone?