A 26-year-old Seattle man was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison after authorities found dozens of homemade guns and more than 100 machine gun conversion devices in his apartment, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Andre Justice Atwater was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle for possession of a machine gun, U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said.
The case began in June 2024, when Atwater was taken into custody following the shooting of two men with a high-caliber BB gun in the parking lot of his International District apartment building.
Investigators identified Atwater as the shooter and later searched his apartment, where they found more than 25 firearms, including 20 privately made, unregistered “ghost guns.”
Authorities also seized 103 Glock switches, devices that can convert a semi-automatic Glock handgun into a fully automatic machine gun.
“This is a very serious offense,” U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said during sentencing. “3D printers are most commonly used for coming up with illegal firearms.”
Court records show one bedroom of the apartment had been converted into a workshop for making firearms.
Investigators found a 3D printer, gunsmithing tools and a gun safe containing 25 firearms.
Three of the Glock switches had already been filed down for installation into a gun, according to prosecutors.
Agents also found two silencers in the apartment.
Under federal law, possession of machine guns and silencers is illegal.
Prosecutors said the 103 Glock switches seized in the case marked the largest such seizure in the Western District of Washington.
In a filing seeking a three-year prison sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg wrote that the number of firearms and conversion devices suggested an intent to sell them.
“…(T)he sheer volume of firearms Atwater possessed (and likely manufactured himself), and the large quantity of 103 machine gun conversion devices, is consistent with his present and/or future intent to sell the firearms and Glock switches,” Greenberg wrote. “But for the fortuitous law enforcement intervention, Atwater had the potential to supply the streets of Seattle with dangerous firearms and machinegun devices – all or most of which would have inevitably ended up in the hands of dangerous individuals.”
Judge Robart ordered Atwater to serve three years of supervised release after completing his federal prison term.
Separately, Atwater was sentenced in King County Superior Court to nine months in prison for the BB-gun assaults, according to court records.