Prosecutors: Teen had loaded gun in parked car at Topgolf in Naperville
A 19-year-old from Indiana faces a weapons charge after Naperville police said they found a loaded handgun in his car in the Topgolf parking lot.
Jalen Littleton, of the 3700 block of Towle Avenue, Hammond, has been charged with one felony count of unlawful use of a machine gun.
DuPage County Judge Joshua Dieden granted prosecutors' request that Littleton be held in jail while awaiting trial.
According to prosecutors, Naperville police officers were on routine patrol at Topgolf on Odyssey Court at about 9:51 p.m. Saturday when they saw a gun in plain view on the driver's side floorboard of a black Chevy Cruze.
Authorities allege Littleton and another individual returned to the car a short time later. When Littleton entered the driver's seat of his car, Naperville police officers turned on their emergency lights and boxed in the Chevy, prosecutors said.
Officers searched Littleton's car and found a fully loaded Glock 22 .40 caliber handgun with an extended magazine, a laser sight and a switch that allows the weapon to fire fully automatic, prosecutors said. Littleton, who does not have a valid firearm owner's identification (FOID) card or a concealed carry license, was taken into custody.
Littleton is next due in court for his arraignment on Oct. 16.
It's the third such gun-related arrest in the Topgolf parking lot in recent weeks.
A police officer on foot patrol at Topgolf smelled cannabis coming from an unoccupied Volkswagen SUV on Sept. 11. When the officer stepped closer to investigate, he spotted a gun protruding from the driver's-side door frame, authorities said.
Around an hour later, Darron Prince, a 36-year-old from Joliet, entered the SUV, and police took him into custody, authorities said. Prince was charged with one count of being an armed habitual criminal and one count of armed violence.
Police said they found a loaded Glock 42 handgun, cannabis, mushrooms, cocaine, heroin and one pill of MDMA in the SUV.
Last week, Ronald Richardson, a 34-year-old from Chicago, was ordered detained before trial on charges alleging he illegally possessed a gun in the Topgolf parking lot.
Richardson was charged with being an armed habitual criminal and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.
According to prosecutors' petition for detention, Naperville police patrolling the parking lot saw an extended ammunition magazine protruding from a gun in the driver's-side door compartment of a parked car on Sept. 26.
Police said officers found a .40-caliber Glock 27 handgun loaded with 19 rounds of ammunition in the vehicle, which they say Richardson owns.
Richardson is on parole for a Cook County conviction of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to prosecutors. He told police the gun was not his and that he did not know how it was in the car, authorities said.
• Daily Herald staff writer Susan Sarkauskas contributed to this report