A Cook County judge expressed her “grave concerns” about a misdemeanor gun case in which police allegedly found two weapons in a car — including one hidden in a secret compartment — during a traffic stop in the West Loop.
Police stopped the vehicle on the 300 block of South Racine on Thursday because it only had one headlight, prosecutors said. When the car’s front passenger showed officers a joint, they asked everyone to step out of the car so they could conduct a “narcotics search” of the vehicle, according to the allegations.
The cops said they found an unloaded gun in the car’s glovebox.
They found another gun behind a trap door that was accessible to the driver, prosecutors said. That gun was loaded with an extended ammunition magazine loaded with hollowpoints and had a switch that could make it generate automatic gunfire, an assistant state’s attorney told Judge Maraym Ahmad on Friday morning.
Prosecutors charged the driver, Breyaun Evans, 19, with misdemeanor unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of cannabis by a driver, according to court records. They did not say who owned the car.
Private defense attorney Ari Williams said Evans attends Kentucky State University and holds an Indiana gun permit. He has never been arrested before, she said.
“Two guns,” Ahamad said. “I didn’t hear an [Illinois gun permit] and I certainly Did not hear an Illinois concealed carry.”
“I heard a high capacity magazine. Metal piercing bullets, actually hollowpoints, and a firearm that’s capable of being rendered from semi-automatic to fully automatic,” Ahmad summarized at the end of Evans’ bail hearing. “These are weapons that if used on a person’s flesh will pulverize a person’s flesh. These are the most dangerous weapons that can be on the street. And I recognized this defendant is charged with a misdemeanor, and I’m gonna set a misdemeanor bail, but the court wants to articulate its grave concern.”
Ahmad then set bail at $10,000. Evans must post 10% of that to get out of jail.
Editor’s note: The Chicago Police Department delays the release of misdemeanor mugshots for four days.
