Man with Lodi ties pleads guilty to firearms charges

LOS ANGELES — A man who drove his truck into a crowd of people protesting racial injustices last year in Pasadena, California, pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal gun charges.

Benjamin Hung, who lives in San Marino, was arrested in May 2020 after he nearly hit protesters who had gathered at the intersection of Fair Oaks Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena’s downtown with his Dodge Ram pickup. After Hung was pulled over and detained, police found a loaded Glock 26 handgun inside a fanny pack, the affidavit says.

In pleading guilty Wednesday, Hung acknowledged he had given cash to an unidentified associate who bought the handgun and other firearms in Oregon and delivered them to Hung in California. Through this scheme, Hung obtained the Glock 26 he was carrying in his truck, as well as a Glock 43, a Glock 19X and a Walther P-99, according to his plea agreement. He did not register the weapons in California, the agreement says.

Hung also purchased four rifles and a shotgun in Washington state after falsely stating he was a state resident, according to his plea agreement. The dealers who sold Hung the weapons were allowed to sell them only to people who lived in the state. Hung kept those firearms at a home in Lodi without registering them in California, his plea agreement says. When agents searched the home in September 2020, they also found two Colt M4 carbines with shortened barrels, according to the agreement.