Cops find gun in car

YOUNGSTOWN — Police found a loaded .40-caliber handgun during a traffic stop on the North Side late Monday afternoon.

Officers pulled over a car at New York and Kensington avenues about 5:25 p.m. because it had no front license plate and the driver, Steve Gosling, 31, of Nash Avenue in Niles, had no license, reports said.

When officers asked him what he was doing, he told them he was taking his wife to ValleyCare Northside Medical Center, reports said. Reports said there was also a woman passenger and a male passenger in the car as well.

Police asked Gosling to step out of the car and he told them he had a knife in his pocket and he also had an empty holster under his jacket, reports said. He told police he did not have a carrying concealed weapon permit and that he had a gun in the glove compartment of his car.

Inside the glove compartment police found a loaded .40-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic handgun and seven loose .45-caliber rounds, reports said. Gosling was arrested and taken to the Mahoning County jail on a charge of improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle. Reports also noted Gosling has numerous open suspensions on his license.

The woman passenger, Serena Berrett, 24, also of Nash Avenue in Niles, was arrested for the charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of drug abuse instruments after police found a spoon and syringe on her during a search. She was taken to the jail and given an additional charge of possession of drugs after she told corrections officers she had heroin in her bra.

They are both expected to be arraigned Wednesday in Youngstown Municipal Court.