Police arrest aide to NYC mayor Bill de Blasio on weapons charges
NEW YORK -- A staff member in Mayor Bill de Blasio's Office of Criminal Justice has been arrested after police say they found a loaded handgun in a vehicle she was a passenger in. Police say officers were responding to a ShotSpotter report of gunfire in Jamaica, Queens Saturday night when they came upon a vehicle double parked.
The officers searched the car and found a shell casing and a loaded 9-millimeter handgun.
Police say 42-year-old Reagan Stevens, who was sitting in the back, and two men in the vehicle were arrested on weapons possession charges. No one claimed the gun, so all three were arrested, police told CBS New York.
Stevens is listed as Deputy Director of Youth and Strategic Initiatives. It wasn't clear if she had a lawyer who could comment.
A spokesman for the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice said Stevens has been suspended without pay pending an investigation.
"We take these allegations very seriously," the de Blasio administration said in a statement released to the station.