Violent Felon Armed With Switch Charged With Firearm Crime

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

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

According to the complaint, on Aug. 7, plainclothes officers were conducting increased surveillance at an apartment complex near Walnut Hill Lane and Greenville Avenue when they witnessed a black Kia Sorrento commit traffic violations while exiting the parking lot. (The increased police surveillance was in response to an incident involving Dallas Police Department officers who engaged suspects who crashed a stolen pickup truck into a patrol vehicle.)

Patrol officers stopped the Kia. While walking back to their patrol vehicle with the driver's license, the officers observed Mr. Johnson, who was seated in the passenger seat, making furtive movements and repeatedly turning to look back at the officer.

When they returned to the Kia, they observed a high-capacity Glock magazine resting on the passenger floorboard underneath Mr. Johnson's seat. Inside the glove compartment, they found a .40 caliber Glock handgun with a live round inserted in the chamber and a Glock switch slotted into the backplate.

A criminal history query revealed that Mr. Johnson 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 allegation of wrongdoing, not evidence. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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

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

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

It is also a part of "Operation Texas Kill Switch," a statewide initiative taking aim at machinegun conversion devices, also known as "switches," which transform commercially available semi-automatic firearms into fully-automatic weapons capable of firing faster than military-grade machine guns. Spearheaded 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 as well as rewards offered by Crime Stoppers