WESTERLO — Guns stolen from a store deep in the rural Hilltowns ended up being sold on the streets of New York City, police say.

Richard M. Mwazi, 20, of Queens, was arrested on Friday, Feb. 3, for third-degree burglary, a felony.

In the early morning hours of Jan. 22, Mwazi broke into South Wings Sporting and Gun Shop on Route 405 in South Westerlo, smashing out a front window, and made off with 21 firearms, a mix of shotguns, rifles, and handguns, according to the Albany County Sheriff’s Department.

As Mwazi was driving off, the sheriff’s department says, the store owner took shots at his car, leaving three bullet holes in the burgundy sedan.

When asked if the owner’s shots were legal, Sheriff James Campbell told The Enterprise, "We’re still reviewing it."

The owner did not return a phone message. A store employee told The Enterprise the owner had no comment. According to the store’s website, the owner, John Gipprich, has sold guns in Westerlo since 1996. The store caters to local hunters and customers from downstate, the website says.

At the time of the burglary, Mwazi was spending the weekend at his mother’s summer home at 3195 Sleepy Hollow Road in Athens, not too far from the gun shop, according to the sheriff’s department. Mwazi’s mother works for the United Nations in New York, Campbell said. The mother and son are American citizens, he said.

Mwazi is a suspect in a State Police investigation of a burglary on Jan. 15 of the same store, Campbell said. In that burglary, three handguns were reported stolen.

On Jan. 24, Mwazi was arrested in Mount Vernon, just north of New York City, for fourth-degree criminal possession of a stolen weapon. Mwazi brandished one of the stolen handguns in a fight, Campbell said.

The Mount Vernon Police contacted the Albany County Sheriff’s Department, which sent investigators. In Mwazi’s car, investigators found two guns and three bullet holes, the sheriff’s department says.

On Jan. 30, sheriff’s investigators, using information from Mwazi and his attorney, recovered nine of the guns from an alleyway in Harlem, the sheriff’s department says.

Mwazi has been cooperative, Campbell said. He turned himself in to the sheriff’s department on Feb. 3, returning two guns at the same time, police say.

Mwazi and his attorney even went so far as to buy back some of the guns that he sold in the New York City area and return them to the police, Campbell said.

The sheriff’s department says an investigation is continuing to recover the remaining few guns.

Mwazi was arraigned by Supreme Court Justice Thomas Spargo and was released on $20,000 bail.