Ex-Convict Charged With Brandishing Gun in San Leandro: Police

SAN LEANDRO, CA - An ex-convict has been charged with felony counts of carrying a concealed firearm in his vehicle and carrying a loaded firearm on his person after he allegedly brandished a firearm at another motorist while driving in San Leandro on Sunday, authorities said.

Officers responded to a shopping center in the 1300 block of Fairmont Avenue at about 1:15 a.m. on Sunday to investigate a report of a man who had brandished a firearm at another motorist but had minimal information about the suspect and his vehicle, according to police. But seven minutes later another officer spotted a vehicle matching the description that witnesses provided of the suspect and his vehicle and stopped the vehicle in the 15200 block of Hesperian Boulevard, police said.

The officer who stopped the white Pontiac Grand Am spoke with 31-year-old Jose Reyes of unincorporated San Leandro and determined that he could be searched because he had a prior criminal conviction, according to police.

Reyes' girlfriend and his 10-year-old daughter were also in the car, police said.

Officers interviewed Reyes, searched his car and found a loaded pistol with a high-capacity magazine containing 28 rounds of ammunition under the driver's seat, according to police. The pistol wasn't registered, they said.

Reyes was then arrested on suspicion of carrying an unregistered, loaded, concealed firearm with a high-capacity magazine and transported to the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, where he is being held on $40,000 bail, police said.

San Leandro investigators spoke to the Alameda County District Attorney's Office about the possibility of also pursuing child abuse charges against Reyes for allegedly brandishing the firearm at the victim in front of his daughter, police said. But the District Attorney's Office chose not to charge Reyes with that crime.

-Bay City News