Deputies: Driver slumped, ‘asleep’ had felony warrant, handgun

ALMENA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — A driver who deputies originally thought had a medical emergency or was asleep actually turned out to be a felon with a handgun under his seat, according to the sheriff’s office.

Around 1:35 p.m. Wednesday, deputies with the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office were called to the intersection of M-43 and M-40 north of Paw Paw after someone driving by reported a vehicle on the shoulder of the road with a man slumped over the steering wheel.

When deputies arrived, they found two men in the vehicle and recognized the 30-year-old driver from Gobles as a man with a felony warrant out for his arrest out of Allegan County. It’s not clear what the warrant was for.

Deputies discovered he was not having a medical emergency “but had fallen asleep,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a release. They told the man to get out of the vehicle but he refused, instead reaching under his seat. Deputies pulled him out of the vehicle and arrested him.

After searching the vehicle, deputies found a loaded handgun was under the man’s seat where he had been reaching.

The man, who was not named by deputies, was booked into the Van Buren County Jail for resisting arrest, being a felon with a firearm and ammunition, and the outstanding warrant.

The passenger was released at the scene, deputies said.

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