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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — An Urbana man is under arrest after University of Illinois Police officials said he was caught near campus with a loaded gun and drugs.
Officials said that the arrest happened during a proactive Campustown patrol Wednesday night. An officer conducting that patrol spotted a suspicious car with its trunk open and two men carrying a TV away from an apartment complex.
Officials said that the officer was aware of the fact that burglaries are more prevalent during the summer, as students are away from their off-campus apartments. Officials added that the officer also recognized one of the men from a previous arrest.
The car the officer observed, officials said, belonged to Brandon Turk, 27 of Urbana. Records from the Champaign County Jail show that he’s been booked there on 15 other occasions, the most recent of which happened two weeks ago. U of I Police were listed as the arresting agency.
When the officer stopped to inquire about the situation, officials said he smelled marijuana and alcohol coming from Turk’s car. They also said the officer spotted an open bottle of liquor in the car while the TV was being loaded.
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This, officers told Turk, gave them legal justification to search the car. Officials said that Turk then locked the car and tried to leave, without success.
Upon searching the car, police found a loaded handgun under the driver’s seat, along with illegally packaged cannabis and psilocybin mushrooms, officials said. Turk was arrested on charges related to this discovery; the other man, police later learned, had permission to take the TV that he and Turk were carrying.
Turk was arrested on charges of booked into the Champaign County Jail on charges of armed violence, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a controlled substance and illegal possession of marijuana. A judge set bond at $50,000.
Officials said that proactive patrols of residential areas of Campustown, similar to the one that resulted in Turk’s arrest, will continue throughout the summer.
