Man sent to prison after police found him with ‘switch’ handgun in Beaufort area
A Ridgeland man received six years in prison after police conducting a traffic stop found him with a handgun that had been converted into a fully automatic weapon.
Emmanuelle Hargrove Jr., 25, pleaded guilty to possession of a machine gun on Thursday, exactly two years after his arrest for the illegally modified firearm. Hargrove was a passenger in a Nissan Altima that was pulled over in the early morning hours of Jan 8, 2024, after a Beaufort police officer noticed the vehicle had a defective brake light as it crossed the Woods Memorial Bridge onto Lady’s Island.
Smelling burnt marijuana during the stop, the officer decided to search the vehicle. Under the front passenger seat, police found a Glock 31 that had been modified with a small “switch” device, according to a press release from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.
DNA found on the firearm
Forensics testing later found Hargrove’s DNA on the firearm, prosecutors said. The driver of the Nissan, 22-year-old Keianna Nichole Staple of Hilton Head Island, faces a pending charge of driving under suspension stemming from the traffic stop.
About the size of a U.S. quarter, Glock switches can be 3-D printed or purchased online for as little as $20. In December, the weapons manufacturer announced it would replace two of its popular pistol lines and replace them with a new model reportedly designed to withstand the popular illicit devices.
Hargrove has no other criminal convictions but has yet to stand trial for pending charges including attempted murder, possession of a stolen firearm and discharging firearms into a dwelling.
Machine gun cases on the rise locally
Local leaders have recently sounded the alarm about rising machine gun arrests in and around Beaufort County.
Fourteenth Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone, the top prosecutor for Allendale, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties, said officials saw more machine gun cases in 2024 and the latter half of 2025 than in the 10 years prior. More than 65% of those cases came from Beaufort County.
Intensifying the local discourse around automatic weapons was October’s mass shooting at a St. Helena Island bar, where witnesses described hearing rapid gunfire like that of a machine gun. Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner would not confirm the type of weapon used in the shooting but, in a press conference concerning the event, decried judges’ low bond amounts set for defendants in machine gun cases.
“We chase them every week, every weekend,” Tanner said of suspects facing machine gun possession charges who are released on bond.
Anferny Freeman, who has been charged with four counts of murder in connection with the mass shooting, has pending charges of machine gun possession in connection with prior incidents.
This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 4:28 PM.
