2 Joliet Teens With Fully Automatic Pistol, Semi-Automatic AR Pistol, Land In Will Co. Jail: Prosecutors

JOLIET, IL — A pair of 18-year-old Joliet teenagers, Bryan Lopez and his friend Joshua Price, were both in the Will County Jail following their recent arrest by the Joliet Police Department in connection with a weapons investigation by multiple officers.

Price, the one now being detained under the SAFE-T-Act, has been charged with resisting a peace officer, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful use of weapons. Lopez faces felony weapons charges, but he was released from custody after three days in the Will County Jail.

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According to the prosecution's petition to deny pretrial release, around 5:55 p.m. last Friday, May 8, three officers doing surveillance in the 0 to 50 block of East Zarley Boulevard on an unrelated investigation suddenly saw a black GMC Sierra circling the area before parking on Zarley. Three people in the vehicle exited and that's when one of the undercover officers spotted the driver from a previous aggravated weapons crime.

The passengers in the car were Price and Lopez. An officer saw Lopez retrieve a backpack from the truck that was weighed down by a heavy object and then the backpack was placed on the teenager's bag. An officer then saw Price approach the vehicle and tuck a black pistol into his waistband, court files show. The third person with them walked off through an apartment complex leaving Lopez and Price near the truck.

At that moment, one of the officers put his undercover vehicle in front of the Sierra as the officers announced their presence.

Lopez placed his hands in the air as ordered but Price pulled the black handgun from his waist and threw it to the ground, before running north, court documents indicate.

One of the detectives managed to trip Price and he fell to the ground. However, he resisted commands to stop as he tensed up his arms and tried to push himself up off the ground and then he refused to put his hands behind his back, prosecutors noted. Later, Lopez admitted to Joliet police he had a gun in his backpack. Joliet police then retrieved one black Anderson Manufacturing AM-15 semi-automatic AR pistol from the backpack with an empty black magazine. Then a second gun was recovered from teenager Price, a black Glock 19 fully automatic pistol with a silver switch, laser/light attachment and an extended magazine with 23 live 9 mm rounds in the magazine, court documents informed Will County Judge Rolonda Mitchell.

"Neither defendant possessed a valid FOID card, nor a CCL," prosecutors pointed out in their petition for Price.