Man arrested for trying to buy guns with fake ID at gun show, Mesa police say

A man was arrested for attempting to buy firearms at a gun show in Mesa with fake identification, police say.

On Sunday, Sept. 24, court documents say that 22-year-old Nathaniel Mead was at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Mesa Convention Center, where he tried to buy two guns with a fake ID. Uniformed detectives working the convention were informed about Mead around 1:45 p.m. by a vendor. The employees told detectives that Mead had used a different ID on prior occasions to buy firearms, documents say.

Detectives confronted him, and they say he presented an Arizona driver’s license with the name “James Davidson.” They ran a records check with the MVD and did not find anyone with that name matching the driver’s license number on the card. However, the number did return a completely different name and birthdate. He was arrested on the spot, and detectives told him that providing a fake name to them was against the law.

He confessed his name was Nathaniel Mead, and an ID with that name was found on him. However, there was nothing else to verify the ID was real. Witnesses who informed detectives also provided them with an ATF form Mead filled out with a false name, which is also against the law, documents say. Detectives found several other state IDs Mead had; at least three were determined to be fake.