Man faces a misdemeanor charge after leaving gun on bus

A Santa Fe city bus driver recently made a jarring discovery when he opened a guitar case abandoned on his Santa Fe Trails bus and found a loaded assault rifle.

Now the gun’s apparent owner is awaiting a hearing in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, where he faces a misdemeanor charge.

Police reports say the driver told his supervisor Aug. 7 that a passenger had noticed the softcover guitar case on the floor of the bus. Inside the case, the driver found a black AK-47, which police later determined had a loaded magazine but no round in the chamber. The case also contained two additional loaded magazines and 10 loose rounds.

Steven Cummings, 41, listed in police reports as unemployed, called police that day and reported the firearm had been stolen, the reports say. He told police he had planned to go shooting with a friend that day in Diablo Canyon, but those plans fell through and he ended up getting on the bus near Cerrillos Road and Lujan Street on his way to meet another friend downtown. He told police he had planned to lock the rifle in a storage unit. “I must have forgot it on the bus,” Cummings told the officer, the reports say.

Video surveillance footage showed Cummings enter the bus with the guitar case, sit down and then appear to fall asleep, police said. He got off the bus at the Sheridan Avenue stop downtown, without the case.

The weapon previously hadn’t been reported stolen, police said. Cummings told the officer he had purchased the gun and a bill of sale was inside the guitar case. The officer found the bill of sale but was unable to contact the seller listed on the document.

A report noted that a police sergeant in 2016 had issued a “be on the lookout” advisory for Cummings “due to his violent behavior with police.”

On Aug. 13, police filed a criminal complaint accusing Cummings of the misdemeanor of boarding a public bus while carrying a deadly weapon.

New Mexico law prohibits bringing a firearm or other deadly weapon that is “readily accessible” onto a bus without prior approval. There are exceptions for law enforcement and commercial security personnel.

At about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, officers investigating a report of an apparently unrelated assault at Railyard Park arrested Cummings on a warrant charging failure to appear in court on the misdemeanor charge, police reports say.

Cummings, who the reports say has no driver’s license and has a mailing address at St. Elizabeth Shelter near the Railyard Park, was booked and released Wednesday at the Santa Fe County jail, inmate records show.

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for early November.