Detroit's ex-police chief charged in gun incident

DETROIT — The city's former police chief was charged with a misdemeanor count of possessing an unlicensed handgun Monday, three days after he resigned for having the weapon in his luggage when he boarded an airline flight.

Jerry Oliver, 56, did not tell airport security officials he had the loaded .25-caliber pistol in his checked luggage Oct. 18 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Security personnel detected the gun and confiscated it, but Oliver, who had already boarded a plane, was allowed to continue his flight to Philadelphia.

Oliver stepped down on Friday, saying the controversy over the gun had become a distracting sideshow. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick named a deputy chief, Ella Bully-Cummings, as interim police chief on Monday. She is the first woman to hold the department's top post.