Police officers on St. Croix arrested 21-year-old Maurice Doyle of Estate Golden Rock after a K-9 police dog discovered an unlicensed firearm hidden in his vehicle following a traffic stop at about 1:14 a.m. Thursday.
Officers stopped Doyle because he was not wearing his seat belt and ran through a stoplight. After requesting Doyle’s paperwork, officers noticed that he was acting in a nervous manner and asked if he had anything illegal in the vehicle. According to the police report, Doyle told the officer “there’s a gun somewhere in the car.”
The officer deployed the police dog inside the vehicle. The animal went immediately under the dashboard, behind the radio and retrieved a .25-caliber handgun, and placed it on the side of the road.
Doyle then looked at the officer and said, “You got a pretty good dog there,” the police report said.
Doyle was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, failure to report a firearm brought into the territory, possession of ammunition and possession of a dangerous weapon, which was all upheld at his advice of rights hearing Thursday morning.
Doyle was allowed to post 10 percent of his $25,000 bail and as released. He was placed on a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
