Santa Monica police arrested a gang member in possession of a loaded stolen gun on Wednesday, Oct. 14, after officers responded to the Pico neighborhood after reports of a fight.
At 8:48 pm officers of the Santa Monica Police Department received a radio call informing them that a fight was in progress in the rear parking lot of a business located in the 2700 block of Pico Blvd.
As the officers arrived they spotted a man wearing baggy jeans but bereft of a shirt.
The officers watched as this man hastily leapt over a fence at the east side of the parking lot and disappear.
At that moment other officers arrived and apprehended several other suspected fighters in an adjacent alley. These suspects were all known gang members.
One of these men was standing in a doorway near the site of the fight and when he spotted the officers he dropped several items onto a chair that was at the scene.
After dropping the items the suspect began to walk away from the location, and as he was doing this he discarded his hat and other items of clothing.
The officers eventually detained this individual in front of 2711 Pico Blvd. The officers soon discovered that this 19-year-old man of Santa Monica is a known gang member and after searching the area in which this man had been standing the officers found that among the items that the man had been seen discarding were a loaded stolen gun, a bandana, a wallet, a knife, a screwdriver, and an iPod.
The officers arrested this suspect and he was charged with carrying a loaded, stolen firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, being a gang member, and promoting a criminal street gang. Bail was set at $60,000.
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.
