Loaded Gun Found Stashed Under Child's Car Seat During Traffic Stop In Naperville: Cops

DOWNERS GROVE, IL — A Downers Grove man is being held at DuPage County Jail after police say they found a loaded gun stashed under a carseat his 1-year-old daughter was in during a traffic stop in Naperville Tuesday.

Antoine Street, 40, of the 5800 block of Lee Avenue, was charged with aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon concealed in a vehicle (no FOID or conceal/carry license), endangering the health life of a child, resisting a police officer and unlawful possession of cannabis by a passenger.

Naperville police pulled the car over around 10:45 p.m. Tuesday and identified Street was the registered owner. Police say street was in the back passenger's seat, next to his one-year-old daughter who was in a carseat in behind the driver.

Street is accused of refusing to get out of the car after police told him he was under arrest. He "ultimately had to be forced out by officers," a news release from the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office said.

Police say they searched the car and found a 9mm Ruger pistol with a bullet in the chamber beneath the car seat Street's daughter was in. According to the news release, the gun was "less than an inch away from where Street was sitting," with its handle facing him and its barrel facing the driver's seat.

Street is also accused of having 32 grams of cannabis on him when he was taken into custody.

“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 a statement.

Berlin added, “Thankfully, officers were able to remove the weapon before tragedy struck."

Street is set to appear in court on March 2.