Chicago police seized two handguns from a Mag Mile hotel room over the weekend, as the department continues to make near-daily arrests for illegal firearm possession along the North Michigan Avenue corridor.
On Saturday, a manager called police to the St. Clair Hotel, 162 East Ontario, to handle a disturbance over the weekend, according to CPD records. Prosecutors said the manager asked police to remove a man from a guest room for trespassing.
According to prosecutors, officers knocked on the door and took 23-year-old Aaron Steele into custody for the violation. Cops then allegedly discovered a loaded handgun with an extended magazine lying between the bed and the wall inside Steele’s room.
Another loaded gun was found in the sheets of his bed and he had 30 rounds of ammunition and 22 Xanax pills in his pants pocket, prosecutors said. Steele admitted to owning the guns, according to prosecutors.
His defense attorney said Steel recently moved to Chicago from Kentucky.
Judge Arthur Willis ruled that Steel could go home on electronic monitoring by posting a $500 bond.
On Sunday morning, a man on bail for a felony gun possession case was arrested for possessing a handgun that had been modified to produce automatic gunfire just west of the Mag Mile area.
Prosecutors said Jeffery Richardson crashed into two other cars and then ran from the scene on the 300 block of West Chicago around 6:30 a.m. Police arrested him nearby.
According to prosecutors, officers found a loaded handgun with an extended ammunition magazine on the driver’s floormat of the car Richardson was driving. The handgun was allegedly equipped with a device that allows it to produce machine gun-like automatic fire.
Richardson was treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for minor injuries that he allegedly suffered in the collision.
Prosecutors charged him with Class X possession of an automatic-fire weapon, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and possession of a firearm by a street gang member.
On November 1, prosecutors charged Richards with being a felon in possession of a firearm in the Morgan Park neighborhood, according to court records. A judge allowed him to go home by posting a $1,000 deposit in that case, which is still pending.
He has previous felony convictions for attempted possession of a stolen motor vehicle in 2015; vehicular invasion in 2014; and escape, prosecutors said.
On Sunday, Judge Arthur Willis ordered Richardson held without bail for violating the terms of bail in the November charge. Willis set bail on the new charges at $50,000 and ordered Richardson to go onto electronic monitoring if he can post a $5,000 deposit.
In December, cops arrested about one person a day for allegedly having illegal guns on or near the famed retail and hotel corridor. At least 20 more gun arrests were made in the area during January.
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