A 22-year-old convicted felon from Epsom was arrested Tuesday afternoon outside Steeplegate Mall in Concord, where police say he was preparing to sell two stolen handguns.
Christopher Barker is charged with receiving stolen property and of being a felon with a dangerous weapon, police said. Barker had become the target of an investigation into two residential burglaries, one in Enfield and the other in Hartford, Vt. A handgun was reportedly stolen from each residence, and Barker was thought to be in possession of them, police said.
Concord police Lt. Tim O’Malley said detectives received a tip around 3 p.m. that Barker was in the mall parking lot and intended to sell the guns to an unidentified person. Uniformed officers from the city and county sheriff’s department then located Barker’s vehicle, and he was taken into custody without incident, they said in a news release. Both guns were found with him, they said.
Barker, on parole at the time for another offense, was taken to the Merrimack County jail and was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Concord’s district court.