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New York woman faces 25 years in prison over felony weapons charges — after police find cache of fake guns in her home
Photo by SETH HERALD/AFP via Getty Images

New York woman faces 25 years in prison over felony weapons charges — after police find cache of fake guns in her home

What the heck?

A New York woman is facing weapons charges after the NYPD stormed her home and seized at least 22 guns from her apartment.

According to various reporting, members of the NYPD raided Elizaveta Zlatkis' home in 2019 and discovered the weaponry. A later investigation found that 21 of the 22 firearms were not real.

Analysis from the department showed that all weapons were either inoperable or fake, and Elizaveta Zlatkis has said that she lends the fake weapons to rappers and producers to use in music videos or other artistic productions.

What are the details?

Authorities in 2019 raided Zlatkis' home and charged her with first-degree criminal possession of a weapon. She faces a possible 25-year prison sentence.

According to the Forest Hills Post, NYPD officers "acting on a tip" raided Zlatkis' home and discovered the cache of weaponry in her apartment.

"The next day, cops from the 112th Precinct arranged the 22 seized weapons on a table and posed for a Twitter photo commemorating the bust," the outlet reported.

"There was just one problem with the narrative and the charges: 21 of the 22 supposed firearms were airsoft rifles, toy replicas, or starter pistols — the kind used at track meets — incapable of firing ammunition, according to the NYPD's own laboratory reports," the Forest Hills Post noted.

According to the Queens Daily Eagle, Zlatkis said that just one of the 22 weapons was a real firearm. The trigger, Zlatkis said, hand grip, and other internal components were all missing.

Bearing Arms reported that while the guns were either fake or in operable, "in the eyes of the law Zlatkis may very well be a gun owner, since a firearm is defined federally to include a finished frame or receiver for a gun, even if it doesn't have a trigger attached to it."

"Even starter pistols meet the definition of a firearm under federal law because the ATF says they can be 'readily converted' into a real firearm," the outlet said.

What else?

"I look completely crazy," she said of the arrest and charges. "It's humiliating."

Patch reported that Zlatkis, 31, and her husband, Elvis Selimi face "multiple misdemeanors charges in connection with the seizure," which took place on Dec. 27, 2019.

A rapper named Crucial told the Eagle, "We do videos with [the guns] as props. I didn't know you could actually get in trouble with all that. That's wild. They're fake."

In a statement, detective Denise Moroney, a spokesperson for the NYPD, said, "Firearms were recovered on Friday, December 27, 2019, in regard to a search warrant and deemed inoperable at a later date."

The Daily Eagle reported that Zlatkis has refused to take a plea deal, and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz has declined to drop the case over the last year.

"We do not comment on pending cases," a spokesperson for the district attorney's office told Patch this week.

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