Officers from SPD’s Community Response Group (CRG) seized a stolen handgun and methamphetamine from a convicted felon, after spotting him in a car with a damaged ignition near Belltown late Wednesday night. In a separate incident on Tuesday, members of CRG recovered a collection of alaprazolam, fentanyl, meth and heroin after pulling over a car with very out-of-date registration on Tuesday.
Just before 9:45 PM, CRG officers working near 3rd Avenue and Virginia Street noticed a green Honda parked in a garage. The vehicle’s ignition had been punched out, indicating it may have been hot-wired. When officers contacted the 31-year-old man sitting in the driver’s seat, the man said the car wasn’t his and gave officers several different stories about the vehicle.
Upon seeing a knife in the vehicle’s center console, and seeing the man repeatedly reach for a zipped pocket on his jacket, officers asked him to step out of the vehicle.
When officers patted the man down, they found a loaded handgun in the man’s jacket pocket as well as several small bags of suspected methamphetamine. Police then discovered the handgun was stolen, and the learned the 31-year-old man is a convicted felon, unable to legally possess a firearm.
CRG officers arrested the 31-year-old, who was later booked into jail for unlawful possession of a firearm and narcotics possession.
Police also towed the Honda and are attempting to contact the car’s registered owner to determine whether it may have been an unreported stolen vehicle.
One night earlier, on Tuesday, CRG officers on patrol near 3rd Avenue and South Stacy Street pulled over a BMW after noticing its registration had expired in 2017.
When officers contacted the driver, he appeared to be hiding drug paraphernalia on his console. Police also saw small baggies and a scale inside the vehicle.
Officers informed the driver they were seizing his vehicle while they obtained a warrant to conduct a further search and released the man from the scene. The following day, officers obtained a warrant and searched the vehicle, locating alprazolam, fentanyl methamphetamine, heroin, and a loaded handgun magazine in the car.
Police continue to investigate the case.