Raughn Williams Sentenced for Armed Car Chase in Boston

He led state police on a screaming, high-speed chase across Storrow Drive and the Tobin Bridge with a loaded .40-caliber handgun and cocaine stashed on his person — but for Raughn Williams, 23, of Boston, the ride ended in a crash, a foot chase, and a federal prison sentence. Williams was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to four years behind bars for illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition, a crime made all the more dangerous by his status as a convicted felon.

The pursuit began on August 10, 2020, when a Massachusetts State Police trooper attempted to pull Williams over for illegally tinted windows — a minor violation that quickly spiraled into a violent confrontation. Instead of stopping, Williams gunned it, weaving through traffic at dangerous speeds. The chase barreled from Storrow Drive into Chelsea, where Williams lost control and crashed his vehicle into two parked cars. He bolted on foot — but cops caught him within minutes.

When officers cuffed him, they found what turned a traffic stop into a federal case: a loaded Smith & Wesson .40 caliber handgun with 14 rounds chambered and ready. Federal law bars anyone with a prior felony conviction from possessing a firearm or ammunition — and Williams had that record. In his pocket, investigators also recovered 10.1 grams of cocaine, adding a drug charge to the firestorm.

On June 21, 2021, Williams pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Today, U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin handed down a four-year prison sentence, followed by three years of supervised release. The conviction underscores the stakes when guns land in the hands of those legally barred from touching them.

The case was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell; James Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Boston Field Division; Colonel Christopher Mason of the Massachusetts State Police; and Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes. They emphasized that Williams’ capture and conviction was not just luck — it was the result of coordinated effort under Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a federal initiative targeting violent offenders in high-crime urban areas.

Project Safe Neighborhoods, revived under the Department of Justice’s broader violent crime reduction strategy, brings together federal, state, and local agencies to dismantle criminal behavior before it escalates. Williams’ case is being held up as a textbook example of that collaboration in action — one reckless driver, one loaded gun, and a system that, this time, worked fast enough to stop the bullet.