Fairfield Man Arrested After Denying Ownership Of AK-47 Found In Front Seat

FAIRFIELD (CBS SF) -- A Fairfield man on probation for driving under the influence was sober when DUI officers contacted him in Fairfield early Friday, but he wound up in custody anyway, after someone reported they saw an assault rifle in his car.

Alert Buggs, 29, was arrested on suspicion of numerous weapons violations shortly after midnight Friday, according to police. The officers were alerted to Buggs by a driver they had stopped in the 1100 block of Texas Street, about 12 a.m.

The driver told officers that she was concerned about a man in a black Honda Civic with a rifle in his car, in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue.

When the officers pulled into the complex they spotted Buggs getting out of the driver's door of a parked black Honda Civic. One officer approached him to see if he lived at the complex while another officer looked through the Honda's driver's window.

The officer saw a rifle leaning against the center console with the barrel facing down to the gas pedal, according to police. A search of the car turned up an illegally possessed AK-47 rifle with one round in the chamber and 28 rounds loaded in the magazine seated in the rifle, police said.

The assault rifle was within reach of the driver and not concealed. Buggs denied ownership of the weapon, claiming he knew nothing about it, police said.

He was booked into Solano County Jail on the weapons violations as well as a probation violation.

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