Shaw Local

News   •   Sports   •   Obituaries   •   eNewspaper   •   The Scene   •   175 Years
Suburban News

Downers Grove man accused of hiding loaded weapon under occupied child car seat: prosecutors

.

A Downers Grove man accused of hiding a loaded weapon under an occupied child car seat will remain in jail until at least his next court appearance, prosecutors said.

A motion was granted Wednesday to deny pre-trial release for Antoine Street, 40, of the 5800 block of Lee Avenue.

Street is charged with one count of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon concealed in a vehicle and one count of various misdemeanor charges including resisting a police officer, endangering the health or life of a child and unlawful possession of cannabis by a passenger, according to a DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office news release.

About 10:47 p.m. Feb. 3, Naperville police stopped a car whose registered owner, later identified as Street, had active warrants out of Cook County, authorities said.

During the stop, police talked to Street, who was seated in the back seat behind the front passenger seat. Police noticed that next to Street, in the middle seat, was a child car seat with a 1-year-old child seated in it, according to the release.

When police told Street that he was under arrest and asked him to get out of the car, Street resisted and ultimately was forced out by officers, who subsequently arrested him, authorities said.

During a search of the vehicle, police found a loaded 9mm Ruger pistol with one bullet in the chamber under the child car seat in which his daughter was sitting.

The Ruger allegedly was less than one inch away from where Street was sitting, and the handle of the gun was facing the defendant with the barrel pointed toward the driver’s side of the vehicle. That’s when police arrested Street, who was unlawfully in possession of approximately 32 grams of cannabis, according to the release.

“The very idea that someone would hide a loaded weapon, with one bullet in the chamber, under an occupied child car seat where their infant daughter was sitting is inconceivable,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in the release. “Thankfully, officers were able to remove the weapon before tragedy struck.”

Street’s next court appearance is scheduled for March 2.