LOWELL — Two men were arrested after police said they found loaded handguns in their laps as the pair attempted to leave the Acre neighborhood in the back of a ride‑share vehicle following an investigation into reports of shots fired.
Christopher Rivera, 20, of Nashua, New Hampshire, and Sebastian Lach, 18, of Lowell — who already had a pending firearms case in Juvenile Court — were ordered held without bail after a 58A dangerousness hearing on Thursday in Lowell District Court before Judge Cara Krysil.
During the hearing, Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Jack Altman noted the pair have not been charged with the actual shooting, though the investigation remains ongoing.
Altman asked that both men be held without bail, arguing they pose a threat to the public. He detailed their arrests based on Lowell Police Department incident reports, which state that shortly before 9 p.m. Monday, officers were called to the Acre for reports of several shots fired.
Witnesses at the scene claimed to have heard anywhere from seven to 15 gunshots in the area of Cross Street.
Witnesses described young men fleeing from the area. One witness reported seeing four individuals run from the scene — two turning off Cross Street onto Mount Vernon Street, while the other two continued on Cross Street before cutting through yards toward Butterfield Street.
Other witnesses reported seeing just two males, including one Cross Street resident who said he heard gunfire and looked out the window to see two males, including one shooting a gun into the air.
According to the police reports, numerous shell casings and live rounds of ammunition were located on scene. No victims were found to have checked into Lowell General Hospital’s Main Campus or Saints Campus, and no homes or vehicles were found to have been struck by gunfire.
Though there were cameras in the area, none were functioning or captured anything of value, police said.
A member of the Lowell Police Department’s Neighborhood Response Unit said in a report that while investigating the area, officers observed “numerous partygoers” at a home in the 100 block of Butterfield Street.
The officer wrote in the report that while standing in the roadway in front of the home, he observed two males matching the description of the suspects provided by a witness coming from the rear of the home. He said he asked one of them if he saw anything in the area.
The officer said he stated he “heard what happened,” and noted he was walking in the 100 block of Butterfield Street when he heard gunshots. When asked how many gunshots he heard, he was unable to say, telling the officer he was inside at the time.
“This statement appeared to contradict the previous statement of him being outside hearing the gunshots,” the officer stated in the report.
The officer asked to take down his name since he was a witness, and his response was allegedly “do I have to,” the report states. He then identified himself as Lach.
“Although I have never personally interacted with him, I immediately recognized his name as being a suspect in a previous shooting on Burtt Street in the month of June 2026,” the officer said in the report.
The report goes on to state that police later observed two males get into a ride‑share vehicle on Butterfield Street. The officer noted he saw one male — later identified as Rivera — carrying “an item of clothing all wrapped up” as he entered the Uber.
The officer said that as he approached the vehicle, he shined his flashlight through the window and saw a bulge in the black sweatshirt of the male that he believed could be a firearm. The officer said he opened the rear passenger door and ordered both parties to put their hands in the air.
After more police arrived, the officer conducted a pat frisk of the sweatshirt wrapped up in Rivera’s lap and felt a firearm. A pat frisk of a sweatshirt in Lach’s lap also uncovered a handgun.
The firearm in Rivera’s lap was identified as an FN Five‑seven. The serial number on the gun was “completely obliterated,” police said.
The firearm in Lach’s lap was a Glock 27 Gen 4, which police said had a device attached that allowed it to be fired as an automatic weapon.
Both firearms were loaded and contained ammunition in the magazine.
Rivera and Lach were charged with carrying a firearm without a license, carrying a loaded firearm, and possession of ammunition. Rivera was additionally charged with possession of a large capacity feeding device, while Lach was charged with possession of a loaded machine gun.
During the hearing, Rivera’s attorney, Martin Ryan, asked Krysil to release Rivera, allowing him to stay at his sister’s home in Tyngsboro. He said his client is not a dangerous person and does not have any criminal record as an adult or a juvenile.
Ryan pointed out that no one was injured during the shooting and no property was damaged, noting that it was more of a “stupid act” of firing shots into the air than a “combat situation.”
Altman, meanwhile, noted that Lach has an open juvenile case in which he is accused of going to the residence of a classmate, stealing items from him, and hitting him on the head with a pistol. In that case he was released but ordered not to possess a firearm. He was also initially given a GPS tracking device as part of his release, but it was later removed by order of the court.
“And we’re in this position now,” Altman said.
The prosecutor also submitted a motion to revoke Lach’s pretrial release in that case, which was allowed by Krysil.
Lach’s attorney, Erich Bryant, noted that Lach was found not competent to stand trial on three separate occasions in Juvenile Court in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
In his current juvenile case, Lach was initially found not competent, but that was later changed following an evaluation a month ago.
Bryant noted his client suffers from neuropsychiatric disorders, including ADHD. Bryant told Krysil, “we have someone who has walked that line of competency, and he will likely walk that line of competency his entire life.”
Bryant entered a motion for $5,000 for an independent psychologist to establish Lach’s competency to stand trial and criminal responsibility, which was allowed by the judge.
Bryant also debated the current case against Lach and Rivera, noting that the witness descriptions did not really narrow down the people on scene given the crowd at the party.
He pointed out how the two have not been charged with the shooting itself.
“There’s no actual evidence that these two gentlemen fired (the guns),” Bryant told the judge. “And that’s why they’re not charged with it.”
Altman noted during the hearing that the State Police Crime Lab is conducting forensic testing on the evidence, work he said will help determine whether either weapon recovered from the ride‑share was involved in the Acre gunfire.
Krysil ultimately sided with the prosecution, finding both men a threat to the public and ordering they be held without bail for up to 120 days as the case progresses in court.
The pair is scheduled to return to court for a probable cause hearing on Oct. 1.
Follow Aaron Curtis on X @aselahcurtis, or on Bluesky @aaronscurtis.bsky.social.
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