Driver Was Not The Registered Owner Of The Vehicle
SANTA CRUZ—two Santa Cruz Police Officers were in the right place at the right time. Not only did they witness a vehicle run a red light, which is a major vehicle code violation, they managed to get another weapon out the hands of a teenager and off the streets for good.
On Wednesday, October 21, two Santa Cruz Police Officers were on patrol when they noticed a beige Buick Regal run a red light at the intersection of Mission Street and Laurel Avenue in the City of Santa Cruz.
The two officers pulled over the vehicle and conducted a traffic stop. While one officer was in contact with the driver, later identified as 18-year-old Brian Alexander Baires of Santa Cruz, the other officer looked inside the car and noticed a shotgun on the floor of the front passenger seat, in arm’s reach of the driver.
The shotgun and shells police recovered from the vehicle.
The driver was immediately removed from the vehicle. The shotgun was removed from the vehicle and found to be loaded with four rounds of 00 buckshot and one round of 7.5 birdshot. Baires did not have any identification on him and he was not the registered owner of the vehicle.
Baires was arrested and booked into the Santa Cruz County jail on charges of possession of a loaded firearm in a vehicle and possession of a sawed-off shotgun. His bail was set at 25,000.00 dollars. Baires lives in an apartment in east Santa Cruz near the Capitola Mall.
