A North Berkeley couple who officials said had stockpiled weapons and discussed “eventual war with the government” was arrested last week by the Berkeley Police Department.
Last Tuesday, just after 11:30 p.m., police received a report that someone had fired a bullet through the walls of a neighbor’s apartment in the 1700 block of Highland Place, according to court documents. Police responded and found two people, later identified as Jeremy Adrian and his girlfriend, Masayo Shinohara, on the second floor landing.
The couple had with them a case an officer identified as one commonly used for the storage and transportation of weapons, according to police, along with a black rolling duffel bag. Police detained Adrian and Shinohara in handcuffs. According to an officer at the scene, Adrian admitted that he had fired a gun into the next-door unit.
According to Adrian’s attorney, Elena Condes, who represented her client Friday at his arraignment hearing, Adrian had removed the ammunition clip from his gun but had not realized there was still a bullet in the chamber. Condes told Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Delucchi on Friday that Adrian had accidentally fired the weapon, then immediately went over to his neighbor’s apartment to apologize and “make sure everybody was OK.”
Police said, according to court documents, that the bullet apparently entered the next door apartment through a bedroom wall and shattered a mirror.
After detaining Adrian and Shinohara, according to court documents, police located in their possession a semi-automatic SKS assault rifle, which they identified as an illegal weapon “because it violated the California Assault Weapon ban;” and other firearms and ammunition. Police said they found a Browning .22-caliber semi-automatic pistol and accompanying silencer, along with two Saiga 12-gauge semi-automatic shotguns, in the couple’s possession.
In addition, according to court documents, authoriries charged the couple with identity theft after police found personal information and access card account information for another person, identified as Celena Galicia. Deputy district attorney Ursula Jones Dickson told the judge Friday that credit cards in Galicia’s name had been used by the couple to purchase various items.
Defense attorney Condes told Judge Delucchi that, though unregistered, most of the firearms in her client’s possession were not illegal: “It’s not as bad as it seems,” she said, as she argued for a bail reduction, which the judge ultimately granted, from $530,000 to $400,000. (Condes also noted that Adrian had no prior criminal record.)
But prosecutor Dickson described the couple as “extremely dangerous,” and said Adrian and Shinohara had conversations with police about how they had been “stockpiling weapons” and the possibility of “eventual war with the government.”
“They were both found leaving, trying to get rid of guns in bags,” she said. “They had multiple guns and multiple types of ammunition. They are extremely dangerous.”
They were arraigned Friday on eight felony counts related to the shooting, the firearms, the silencer and identity theft. (See the full complaint from the district attorney’s office.)
Adrian, 46, and Shinohara, 43, were scheduled to enter their pleas Monday morning. Adrian is being held with a bail of $400,000 at Santa Rita Jail.
Shinohara’s bail was set at $230,000, but she is being held, also at Santa Rita, without bail due to a federal immigration hold. She told the judge she could not afford her own attorney, and Delucchi said the court would assign a public defender to represent her.
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