URBANA, Ill. – More proactive police work resulted in another arrest of a man with a firearm early Sunday morning very near to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.
University of Illinois Police officers initially stopped a vehicle near Goodwin and Oregon avenues, Urbana, at about 1 a.m. after observing that it did not have a front license plate as required.
Soon after the vehicle was stopped, officers were notified by dispatchers that the registered owner, Keandre Delaney, 35, of Champaign, was wanted on an arrest warrant for failure to appear in court related to a charge of resisting a police officer. An officer recognized the front seat passenger as Delaney.
The vehicle was searched after Delaney was detained, and they found a handgun with an extended magazine concealed under a cloth in the passenger side door where Delaney had been sitting. The magazine was loaded with 28 rounds of ammunition, with one more in the chamber of the firearm. Police also found an unsealed bag of 6 grams of cannabis in the door.
Delaney was arrested for unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and was taken to the Champaign County Jail. The driver was released with a verbal warning.
The officers who initiated the traffic stop early Sunday were part of a two-person extra unit that University Police deployed earlier this semester specifically to address concerning trends in gun violence occurring in off-campus areas of Campustown.
