Police arrested a 20-year-old Berkeley man Friday after they say they found a partially hidden gun in his car.

The gun, which was loaded, was also unregistered, Berkeley police said in a statement released Monday morning.

Just before 6 p.m. Friday, BPD officers saw a man driving a vehicle without license plates on Ninth and Gilman streets in West Berkeley, according to the statement.

They stopped the car for the vehicle code violation and spoke with its occupants. Police identified the driver as Kenneth Brown, 20, of Berkeley.

According to the statement, Brown was driving without a license, and his passenger did not have a valid license either.

“When one of the officers asked Brown to step out of the vehicle, he saw a partially concealed handgun,” police said, which was sticking out below the driver’s side floor mat.

“Both the driver and passenger were immediately handcuffed and the handgun secured. An inspection of the gun revealed that it was loaded and unregistered,” police said.

Brown was arrested on suspicion of possession of a loaded, concealed and unregistered firearm, and cited for the vehicle code infractions.

He remains in custody, according to online records from the Alameda County sheriff’s office, but bail information was not listed, and neither were the details of Brown’s next scheduled court hearing.

Brown was charged Monday by the Alameda County district attorney’s office in connection with the loaded gun, according to court records online.

Emilie Raguso (former senior editor, news) joined Berkeleyside in 2012 and covered politics, public safety and development until her departure in 2022. In 2017, Emilie was named Journalist of the Year...