Forest Hills Woman Hit With Weapon Charge Over Fake Guns: Report

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Last December, the NYPD lavished public praise on a team of police officers for seizing 22 guns from a Forest Hills apartment. But, according to the NYPD's own analysis, all the weapons were either fake or inoperable, a news report says.

Forest Hills resident Elizaveta Zlatkis, who was charged with first-degree criminal possession of a weapon, is staring down a possible 25-year prison sentence after cops seized her cache of airsoft rifles, toy replicas and starter pistols, the Queens Daily Eagle reported.

Zlatkis told the Eagle she and her husband loan the fake weapons to rappers and producers to use as props in music videos, citing Cru'cial and Tay Spades as two rappers who have made use of the collection.

Only one of the 22 weapons was a real firearm, but the trigger, hand grip and internal components were all missing, rendering the gun inoperable, the Eagle reported.

“I look completely crazy,” Zltakis told the Eagle. “It’s humiliating.”

In addition to the weapon-possession charge, Zltakis and her husband face multiple misdemeanors charges in connection with the seizure on Dec. 27, 2019, according to the Eagle.

Her lawyer, Joe Murray, is now working to clear Zltakis' name. She refused to take a plea deal, and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz declined to drop the case, the Eagle reported.

It's unclear whether Katz's office still plans to pursue the charges.

"We do not comment on pending cases," Kim Livingston, a spokesperson for the Queen's District Attorney's Office, wrote in response to Patch's request for comment.

Read the full story in the Queens Daily Eagle.