A loaded handgun was found in a holding cell in a Baltimore police station this week, officials confirmed after receiving inquiries from The Baltimore Sun.
The weapon, a .22 caliber handgun with six rounds in the chamber, was found by an officer as he was placing a suspect into a cell in the Southeastern District station on March 12, according to a report provided by police.
The officer had entered the detainee's information in a station log book, then walked into the cell to hand back a driver's license when he noticed a black knit glove lying on a shelf. The gun was inside, the report shows.
Anthony Guglielmi, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, said police do not know how the gun got into the station. It was not a police-issue weapon and it is not known whether the detainee in the cell at the time had smuggled the weapon.
"We first and foremost need to figure out how this gun ended up in a prisoner holding area," Guglielmi said. "This presented a real safety risk to a lot of people and it's being investigated."
The internal affairs unit is conducting an investigation, and lab tests were being performed on the weapon.