Actor Faces Gun Charge

Actor Martin Lawrence will appear in Burbank Municipal Court on Aug. 12 to answer a misdemeanor charge that he carried a loaded gun in a suitcase at Burbank Airport, police said Tuesday.

Lawrence was trying to catch a Southwest Airlines flight to Phoenix about 9:20 p.m. Monday when he placed his suitcase on an X-ray machine conveyor belt, which detected the firearm in the luggage, airport police Sgt. Tom Davenport said.

Lawrence was issued a misdemeanor citation and released. He faces a misdemeanor charge of carrying a loaded firearm in public, Davenport said.

Davenport said Lawrence was “extremely cooperative and nice,” despite missing his flight. Lawrence told police that he thought it was legal to have the 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol in the suitcase, as long as he was traveling out of state, Davenport said.

The incident was Lawrence’s second brush with the law in recent months. Lawrence was detained by Los Angeles police in May, after he had wandered screaming into a Sherman Oaks intersection. In the aftermath of that incident, Lawrence’s physicians said the actor was suffering from exhaustion and dehydration.