An 18-year-old from Berkeley has been charged with carrying an unregistered, loaded gun on the UC Berkeley campus, authorities report.
Jeremiah Robinson was charged Wednesday by the Alameda County district attorney’s office with three gun-related felonies, according to online court records: possession of a loaded firearm on a college campus, carrying a concealed firearm and carrying a loaded firearm. Charges also allege the weapon was unregistered.
A uniformed officer was on foot patrol Saturday near Mulford Hall — not far from Oxford Street and the Crescent — when he saw three males, UCPD said. One of them was “weighing what appeared to be marijuana on a scale,” according to UCPD.
The officer detained the group to investigate, said Officer Nicolas Hernandez, UCPD spokesman. During the investigation, the officer found a loaded firearm in Robinson’s pocket, Hernandez said.
Hernandez did not know whether the marijuana was part of a transaction, but the presence of the drug was “what caught the officer’s attention,” he said.
“This a prime example of UCPD officers doing great police work to get dangerous illegal weapons off the street and keep our campus safe,” Hernandez said in a prepared statement.
Robinson was arrested on a number of gun-related violations, including possession of a high-capacity magazine and an assault weapon, because the handgun had a “threaded barrel capable of accepting a silencer or suppressor,” according to UCPD. He also was arrested on suspicion of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
Ultimately, those violations do not appear to have been charged, according to court records online. But Robinson was charged with three other felony counts related to the handgun. According to court records online, Robinson entered not guilty pleas Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court.
He remains in custody on $155,000 bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and is set for a pretrial hearing Monday.
