"22-caliber semiautomatic handgun hanging from a shoelace around his neck"
Is this the new summer style?

Jersey-City police arrest suspected drug dealer for marijuana, gun possession

Monday, February 22, 2010

Police arrested a suspected Jersey City pot dealer who had a semiautomatic handgun slung around his neck on a shoelace Saturday evening, police reports said.

Dwayne Watkins, 21, of Clifton Place in Jersey City, was arrested and charged with unlawful weapons possession and marijuana possession with intent to distribute near a school and public property, reports said.

After hearing a couple of gunshots at around 9:15 p.m., police went to Martin Luther King Drive and Forrest Street, where they were told that a man with a machine gun was seen walking north toward Communipaw Avenue, reports said.

Police searched the area and spotted Watkins - who fit the description they were given - several blocks north on Monticello Avenue near Jewitt Avenue.

When they searched him, they found he had a 22-caliber semiautomatic handgun hanging from a shoelace around his neck, along with 27 small bags of suspected marijuana and $726 in cash, reports said.

The weapon, which had an untraceable serial number, contained 19 bullets.

CHARLES HACK