On Friday, Aug. 12, at 5:03 p.m. officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were on patrol in the area of Michigan Avenue and 19th Street when they saw two vehicles that were parked illegally right in the middle of the road. The officers spoke with a man who told them that the vehicles were his, and that he was in the process of moving them. The officers continued to speak with this man and noticed that he had begun to contradict himself. He had, as the conversation had progressed, also become very nervous. The officers were suspicious, so they asked the man if they could take a look inside the vehicles. He gave permission.
The officers located a seven-millimeter rifle, and several rounds of ammunition, on the back seat of one of the vehicles. The man claimed that the rifle was legally registered to him, but the officers found no record of this. The officers then conducted a background check on this self-contradictory, nervous man, and discovered that he had committed crimes that had prohibited him from owning a firearm. This 36-year-old Inglewood resident was arrested and charged with illegal possession of a firearm. His bail was set at $35,000.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com
