Cops: Hempstead man had drugs, illegal gun

A Hempstead man was arrested Thursday evening in Roosevelt, charged with criminal possession of drugs as well as a handgun reported stolen in South Carolina in 2011, Nassau County police said.

Rashad Cooper, 31, of 67 Terrace Ave., was arrested after First Precinct Special Patrol officers found him sitting in a parked car at the corner of Horace Avenue and Lakewood Avenue just before 6 p.m.

Police said an investigation found Cooper was in possession of 33 Xanax pills, four Oxycodone pills, six methamphetamine pills and a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun.

He faces four counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and second-degree and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

He is scheduled for arraignment Friday in First District Court in Hempstead.