By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Benicia Police arrested a 20-year-old Napa man early Wednesday and accused him of endangering a child when he negligently fired a revolver from his car while he on the 1300 block of Southampton Road, Lt. Frank Hartig said.

The incident began about 8:50 p.m., when police were told that someone was shooting a gun from a white car that sped away on Southampton Road, Hartig said. Initially, police could find neither the vehicle nor the shooter. However, another witness told police of hearing three gunshots in the area shortly before police arrived.

About 90 minutes later, an 18-year-old woman arrived at Benicia Police Department and reported that she had been a passenger in the vehicle when the driver had fired the gun from inside, and that her 2-year-old daughter had been in the car when the gun was discharged, he said.

The woman, also a Napa resident, identified the gunman as her boyfriend, and said he had fired the weapon outside the car’s window, Hartig said.

He said the woman told police the man’s gun was in the trunk of the vehicle she was driving, a 2000 white Cadillac.

Officers removed a Ruger .357 caliber revolver they found in the trunk, Hartig said.

About 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, Benicia police officers and those from Napa Police Department went to an apartment in the 700 block of Trancas Street, Napa, contacted and arrested the man identified by the woman as the shooter.

In custody at Solano County Jail, Fairfield, is Jose F. Nava, booked on charges of discharging a firearm with gross negligence and child endangerment, Hartig said.

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