Gun, Drug Dealing Charges For Evanston Man Over July 4 Traffic Stop

EVANSTON, IL — About a half hour before the start of Evanston's 4th of July parade, officers on patrol on the other side of town noticed what appeared to be an unconscious passenger in a parked Toyota with no visible driver, according to police.

Once the officers turned around their squad car to investigate a potential medical emergency, the Toyota began to drive away and police pulled it over, police said.

The officers reported they spotted the driver fiddling with items in a plastic bag in the back seat, leading them to order both the driver and the passenger out of the car.

Police said they found drugs in the bag the driver had been manipulating and called an ambulance for the passenger, who declined treatment and was later released.

The driver was taken into custody after a search of the car turned up a loaded 9 mm handgun as well as a variety of drugs, according to police, who reported seizing 33 grams of what looked like cocaine, 3 grams of suspected heroin, 47 grams of cannabis, some 30 to 40 Xanax pills and three MDMA pills.

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Robert Gunn, 44, of the 100 block of Custer Avenue in Evanston, was charged with one count of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, a felony count of manufacture or delivery of cannabis and three felony counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.

According to the sheriff's office, Gunn has been denied pretrial release and is being held at the Cook County Jail. He is due back in court on Aug. 1.