One of the confiscated guns
BERKELEY – Twice in as many days a patrol officer making routine traffic stops encountered drivers carrying guns—resulting in the arrests of two men on illegal weapons possession charges.
A loaded .357 revolver was found concealed under the carpeting of a car stopped for a code violation near San Pablo Avenue and Carleton Street on April 28 at 10:13 p.m. The gun was found hidden on the front driver’s side of the car during a search unrelated to the vehicle code violation, police said.
The 32-year-old driver Walter Green, a Berkeley resident, was charged with carrying a concealed firearm, carrying a loaded firearm in public, and possession of stolen property when police determined the gun had been reported stolen. Green was booked at the Berkeley Jail.
On April 29 at 11:01 p.m. the same officer pulled over a vehicle with an expired registration sticker. A records check indicated the driver had a prior felony conviction, and during a subsequent search of the vehicle the officer found a loaded pistol concealed inside a backpack on the front passenger seat.
This driver Lamar Cotton, 32, of Richmond, was booked at the Berkeley Jail for carrying a concealed weapon, carrying a loaded firearm in public, felon in possession of a firearm, and narcotics charges.
The city experienced an uptick in reported shooting incidents in 2016, and police have announced an ongoing effort is underway to get illegal guns off the city’s streets. The arrests last week follow several other recent arrests involving illegal weapons possession in Berkeley.
