Owners of imitation firearms warned

A 21-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were arrested Saturday night for allegedly shooting pellets from imitation firearms at people in a cafe parking lot.

Roseville Police Chief Joel Neves said, “I strongly caution parents and owners of these imitation firearms: they can be very dangerous. They can easily be mistaken for real firearms. It is against the law to openly carry or display imitation firearms in public, and it is also against the law to alter them to look even more real. Furthermore, it is against the law to fire any type of firearm, including pellet or BB guns, inside Roseville city limits.”

At 8:55 p.m. on December 30, Roseville Police responded to a report of pellets striking two security officers who were standing in the lot of the Underground Cafe, a coffee house operated on the grounds of a church on Olympus Drive.  The two security officers were not injured. Two males were seen leaving the area in a sports utility vehicle.  An Airsoft pellet rifle that looked like a sophisticated sniper rifle was found in some bushes nearby.

Officers stopped the suspects’ vehicle a few minutes later on Douglas Boulevard at Eureka Road and arrested the two occupants. A search of the vehicle produced several authentic looking firearms that proved to be Airsoft pellet guns. Some had originally been manufactured with orange stocks to mark them as replicas, but the stocks had been repainted black.

Michael Barak Resor, 21, of Orangevale, and a 16-year-old male from Roseville were arrested on suspicion of battery, conspiracy, and alteration of a imitation firearm. The juvenile was also cited for displaying a imitation firearm in public. Both were booked at the Roseville Police Department Jail and released on citations to appear in court.