Bail was set at $35,000 for a 24-year-old Los Angeles resident on Saturday, May 2, after being found in possession of a firearm in the vehicle of an active gang member.
An officer who was on a routine patrol in the area of the 1600 block of Michigan Ave. spotted a black pickup truck at 2:30 am that was driving down the street with an unspecified vehicle code violation.
The officer stopped the vehicle and began to speak with the driver and a passenger.
The officer noticed that the passenger appeared to be of a nervous disposition at that time.
When the officer asked if there were any illegal weapons in the vehicle both the occupants replied that there were not, but the passenger became even more agitated.
The officers asked if they would mind exiting the vehicle so that he could search the vehicle.
The occupants got out of the vehicle and as the officer began his search, the passenger told the officer that there was actually a firearm in the glove compartment of the vehicle.
The officer asked the passenger why he had been driving around with a firearm in the vehicle and the passenger claimed that he had been to a shooting range and had forgotten that the gun was in the glove box of the vehicle.
The officer arrested this L.A. resident and he was charged with being in possession of an unloaded firearm in a vehicle by an active gang member.
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.
