Evanston police say a routine traffic stop at James Park Tuesday evening led to the discovery of a man carrying a loaded handgun.
Commander James Pickett says that just before 9 p.m. officers noticed a known unlicensed driver driving eastbound toward Dodge Avenue from inside the park.
After conducting a traffic stop in the parking lot of the Levy Center, the officers say they became concerned about the nervous behavior of a front seat passenger in the car. They asked the passenger to step out of the car, and when they performed a safety pat down on him, they discovered he was carrying a loaded Colt .45 semi-automatic handgun and placed him into custody without incident.
The passenger, Terrel L. Ford, 18, of the 2000 block of Birchwood in Chicago, has been charged with felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a firearm without a firearm owner’s identification card and a city ordinance violation of handgun possession. He’s scheduled to appear in Skokie district court Aug. 23.
The driver of the vehicle, Lionel Soberanis, 26, of the 800 block of Mulford in Evanston, was arrested for traffic violations.
Good Job, EPD!
Hopefully more "known unlicensed drivers" will be taken off the streets!
Too bad when the case goes
Too bad when the case goes to court, the guy with the gun will get off because the judge will say the police didn’t have a right to ask the passenger out of the car since it had nothing to do with the original stop. Just the way things work here in the most liberal, criminal friendly place in America!
When the case gets to Scalia and Roberts
"Just the way things work here in the most liberal, criminal friendly place in America!"
More likely, the Supreme Court will declare that the guy has a Second Amendment right to carry whatever weapons he wants, whenever and wherever he wants.
Just the way things work here in right-wing, criminal friendly America.
Left or right, it’s still criminal friendly
and yes, the passenger will likely get off with nothing more than a wrist slap, and a perfectly fine tool (Colt .45 handgun) going into a crusher.
Not bad considering he broke City law: Carrying a weapon, underage possession of a handgun.
State law: No FOID card, underage possesion of a handgun, improper transport of a firearm, concealed carry of a weapon.
Federal law: Underage possession of a handgun.
Just speculation, but if the courts did their job, we would not be having this discussion.
Oh- and a second thought: The Supreme court has not ruled on carrying a firearm, just the right to OWN them.