Two probationers were arrested with a stolen gun during a car stop in West Berkeley over the weekend, authorities report.
Police arrested Jason Holman, 35, of San Pablo and Laquon Walker, 24, of Berkeley shortly after midnight Sunday, said Sgt. Andrew Frankel.
Frankel said a BPD officer on patrol stopped an SUV in the 2200 block of Bonar Street on suspicion of vehicle code violations.
“The car didn’t immediately yield to the officer’s lights and siren,” Frankel said. “Instead, it pulled into the rear parking lot of an apartment building on the same block.”
A records check on two men in the car — the driver and front passenger — found them to be on probation. During the police search that followed, officers found a loaded .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun that had been reported stolen, Frankel said.
“The Berkeley Police Department takes great pride in our ongoing efforts to take illegally possessed firearms off the streets and help make our community a safer place,” he said in a prepared statement.
Walker has been arrested before in Berkeley, including in 2015 on suspicion of vehicle theft and felony battery with serious bodily injury. Earlier this year, police linked him to a battery case involving a fire extinguisher.
He remains in custody and is scheduled for a progress report and restitution hearing in September, according to online records from the Alameda County sheriff’s office.
Holman is scheduled for a probation revocation hearing Thursday.
Both men remain in custody.
