A gun-carrying Leesburg man was taken into custody on a marijuana allegation.
Thursday night, a Fruitland Park police officer on traffic patrol along U.S. Highway 27 spotted a Chevrolet Impala heading north. The policeman saw that Chevy’s tag light was out as he pursued the vehicle. In the vicinity of U.S. Route 27 and Register Road, the officer conducted a traffic stop.
When the police officer approached the car, he smelled marijuana and made contact with the female driver and her passenger, 22-year-old Charles Maurice Bevans.
Bevans handed the police officer a little metal grinder containing what appeared to be marijuana after he reported smelling it in the car. Both Bevans and the driver admitted to the police that they did not have valid medicinal marijuana cards.
When the police officer asked them to, both the driver and Bevans exited the vehicle. Bevans tried to leave when the cop told him to turn around. Another law enforcement official helped to shackle him.
The words “that I have something” came out of Bevans’ mouth as he was being led to the patrol car. A search of Bevans’s person with a pat down found a pistol of approximately.380 caliber in his right front pocket. In addition, under 20 grams of marijuana were discovered in a tiny bag on his person.
Bevans informed the cop that he found the gun in the car and that he wasn’t the owner of it. He explained that he tucked it away because he didn’t want the driver to get into trouble. Bevans was unable to carry a concealed handgun because he did not have the proper documentation.
Bevano was arrested for both unlawfully carrying a concealed firearm and marijuana possession and taken to the Lake County Jail. After posting a bond of $3,000, he was freed from jail.
