COLONIE – A police officer patrolling the area of Swatling Road and Cass Avenue, in response to reports of thefts from unlocked motor vehicles, started a chain of incidents that led to the arrest of three men on drug and weapon charges.
According to Lt. Robert Winn, at 12:29 a.m. on Friday Oct. 27, Patrol Officer Frank Peris saw an argument between a bicyclist and the occupants of a 2013 Hyundai Elantra.
Peris stopped the bicyclist, but the vehicle drove off. It was located by Patrol Officer Patrick Fennelly at the Cumberland Farms parking lot on Troy Schenectady Road minutes later.
The bicyclist, 20-year-old Charles Ford, of Pershing Drive in Colonie, told Peris he knew the occupants of the vehicle and admitted to possessing a small amount of marijuana. He was arrested.
The occupants of the vehicle – the driver, 17-year-old Kareef Abraham and passenger, 19-year-old Tahjeek Pugh, both of Griswold Heights in Troy – also admitted to having marijuana in their possession.
When officers searched the vehicle, they found a .22 caliber handgun with one round in the chamber and six in the magazine, on the front seat as well as cocaine on both men.
The origins of the handgun are not known, Winn said, but it was not reported stolen.
There is no connection between these arrests and the on-going thefts from unlocked vehicles in the Swatling Road area.
Abraham and Pugh are charged with the felonies of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a controlled substance and the violation of possession of marijuana.
Ford is charged with the violation of unlawful possession of marijuana.
Abraham and Pugh were sent to the Albany County jail pending arraignment, and Ford was released on an appearance ticket.
