High Point Police Seize AK-Style Pistol, Arrest Three Teens at Apartment Complex

Three High Point teenagers, one carrying a Mini Draco AK-style pistol, were arrested without incident late Saturday night after a caller reported someone peering into an apartment window at the Avondale Trace Apartments on W. Wendover Avenue.

High Point Police Department patrol officers were dispatched around 10:50 p.m. on March 8 and arrived at the complex within seven minutes, according to Police Chief Curtis Cheeks III. Officers found three teenage males standing in a breezeway of one of the buildings and approached the group. As the teens raised their hands in response to commands, an officer spotted the Mini Draco in one of their waistbands.

Two of the suspects, Janari Gray and Marcus McCombs, both 16, were charged as adults with carrying a concealed weapon, felony attempted first-degree burglary, and secret peeping. Both were transported to the Juvenile Detention Center in Butner. At a first appearance Sunday, a judge set bond at $75,000 secured for McCombs and $50,000 secured for Gray.

The third suspect, a 15-year-old boy whose name was not released, was taken to the Juvenile Detention Center in Greensboro. Officers filed juvenile petitions charging him with the same three offenses, and a secure custody order was granted. All three are from High Point.

Cheeks credited the swift response with preventing a more serious outcome. "There is no reason for teenagers to be running around our city with guns," he said. "We are fortunate this situation did not end with a community member or an officer seriously hurt."

The charges reflect both the suspected peeping and an attempted break-in. Secret peeping and felony attempted first-degree burglary, alongside the concealed weapon charge, suggest officers believed the group's presence at the apartment building extended beyond the original report of someone looking through a window.

The decision to charge Gray and McCombs as adults, while routing the 15-year-old through the juvenile petition process, follows a procedural distinction under North Carolina law, though no explanation of the specific legal rationale was provided in police materials. No injuries were reported, and no residents were identified publicly as victims.