Eleven people arrested with firearms at Caribbean Festival in Boston

Police said Saturday that 11 people with firearms were arrested in the vicinity of the Caribbean Carnival Festival in Dorchester, one year after eight people were shot on the sidelines of the parade.

Between 2 a.m. and after 7 p.m. on Saturday, police seized nine firearms, Boston police said Sunday. Four of the 11 defendants are minors, the police department said, and four of the weapons are large caliber.

Last year, eight people were injured, one seriously, in a shooting before 8 a.m. at the Festival's J'ouvert Parade near Blue Hill and Talbot avenues in Dorchester. Four men have been charged in connection with the shooting.

Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox told reporters before Carnival that last year's shooting was an isolated incident.

“This is a positive event for our community,” Cox said, according to WHDH. “When an incident happens, it puts a damper on events in general, but the fact is that for the most part, people come, have fun, go home and that's it. That's what we expect this year as well.”

This weekend's Caribbean Carnival Festival came after a shooting at the Dominican Festival in Franklin Park last week. Five people sustained non-life-threatening injuries and the investigation is ongoing.

11 people arrested for possession of weapons

Police said they arrested 11 people between the ages of 15 and 34 on weapons charges on Saturday. No shots were fired and neither officers nor suspects were injured, Boston police said.

Four teens were arrested for gun possession, Boston police said. One of them allegedly had a gun with an extended magazine. A 16-year-old was allegedly found with a loaded gun with a scratched-off serial number after police were called to a fight in which one person was knocked unconscious.

One of those arrested was found to be carrying 11 small bags of crack cocaine, police said. One man was found to have a Glock switch that makes the weapon fully automatic, and another was found to have a high-capacity magazine, the department said.

During a traffic stop, an officer felt “an unknown liquid substance hitting him in the face and arms” and later confiscated a loaded handgun and a water pistol.