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A Pennsylvania man has been charged with unlawful possession of a weapon after being found with a gun in his backpack in a car in Jersey City, police said.

(Jersey Journal File Photo)

A Pennsylvania man has been charged with unlawful possession of a weapon after being found with a gun in his backpack in a car in Jersey City, police said.

About 5 p.m. Friday, police stopped a white, two-door Honda in the area of Kennedy Boulevard and Sherman Place after noticing that the car had an expired inspection sticker.

As two officers approached the car, they saw the front seat passenger -- later identified as Ariel Pagan Jr., 32, of Reading -- reach down to a backpack on the floor by his feet and quickly sit back up, police said.

Police said Pagan then tried to conceal the backpack with his feet.

A person who identified himself as the driver of the car told The Jersey Journal that police did not initially see the inspection sticker and that the backpack was always in the backseat of the car.

Believing that the men could be armed and that Pagan "possibly reached to a weapon," an officer asked Pagan if he was armed or in possession of any weapons in the car, and Pagan said no, the report stated.

Pagan then told officers they could search the car, police said.

When an officer saw what looked like the barrel of a gun through the partially open zipper of a backpack on the passenger side floor, Pagan said "Oh, I have a gun inside the bookbag," according to the report.

The officers then recovered a 9mm Luger handgun loaded with six hollow point rounds, and arrested both Pagan and the driver of the car, police said.

Police said the driver, a 33-year-old Jersey City man, was later released after Pagan said the driver didn't have any knowledge of the gun.