Former Taneytown Police Chief Pleads Guilty To Illegal Transfer & Possession Of Machine Gun
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A longtime police chief is now a convicted felon.
William E. Tyler, 55, of Fairfield, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty Tuesday to the illegal transfer and possession of a machine gun.
Tyler is the former Chief of Police in Taneytown, Md.
According to his guilty plea, in 2017 Tyler transferred two machine guns owned by and registered to the Taneytown Police Department to himself and another office for their personal use in November 2017.
Government prosecutors said he kept one and gave the other away to the other officer and failed to report that he had taken either.
Law enforcement executed search warrants on January 15 at the homes of Tyler and the other office and recovered the machine guns.
Tyler was interviewed by the FBI and ATF and was warned that it is a crime to make a materially false statement or representation to federal agents.
Despite the warning, Tyler lied when he told agents he had never fired the .223-caliber machine gun and did not know it was automatic, when in fact he had fired the weapon, according to his guilty plea.
When the judge accepted his guilty plea, he sighed and looked down, then silently left the courthouse.
Tyler faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for June 14 at 2 p.m. In the meantime, he has been court ordered to give up all the other guns he owns.
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