Narcotics officers arrested a Ruston man last Monday after he was observed acting suspiciously with a handgun on a city street.
Kelvin Hunter, 38, was charged with possession of a stolen firearm and probation violation.
Surveillance was being conducted in a well-known drug trafficking area on South Farmerville Street when Hunter was observed walking on Eastland Avenue. At the corner of Eastland and Farmerville, Hunter allegedly reached into the right front pocket of his shorts and retrieved a semi-automatic pistol.
Hunter’s arrest affidavit noted he grabbed the slide and manipulated it twice and then removed the magazine from the pistol. He looked around in an apparent effort to see if anyone was watching him and then reinserted the magazine into the pistol. With his hand and the pistol concealed in his shorts pocket he began walking on Farmerville Street.
Due to the suspicious nature of Hunter’s behavior, he was stopped and the weapon retrieved. A records check revealed the pistol had been reported stolen in 2020 from Union Parish.
Hunter was arrested and booked at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center for possession of the stolen firearm. Later that afternoon, an additional charge of probation violation on a previous aggravated assault charge was added. Bail was set at $30,000.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
