Passenger Found With Gun, Drugs After Stop: West Haven Police

WEST HAVEN, CT — The passenger of a suspicious vehicle was arrested after police said he was found to be in the possession of a gun and drugs Thursday night in West Haven.

A patrol officer was patrolling the shoreline closing beach parking lots around 10:10 p.m., according to police.

While checking one of the closed beach lots, police said the officer saw a Honda CRV inside the lot.

“The officer then pulled into the lot to tell them the lot was closed,” police wrote in a post on Facebook. “As the officer pulled into the lot, he noticed the Honda driving towards him with no lights on.

“Seeing that this vehicle was in a closed parking lot and had no lights on, the officer signaled for the Honda to stop but the operator accelerated and sped past the officer out onto the street.”

The officer went after the Honda and was able to stop it a short time later, according to police.

Police said the driver, identified as 19-year-old Jayden King of East Hartford, was taken into custody.

The passenger, identified as 18-year-old Darius Aquino of New London, was found to be in possession of a “handgun, with one bullet in the chamber, a high-capacity magazine with thirty-nine bullets contained inside, and Psilocybin mushrooms,” according to police.

Aquino was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to sell narcotic substance, weapon in a motor vehicle and possession of a large capacity magazine.

King was charged with failure to display headlamps, disobeying the signal of an officer and reckless driving.