A Minneapolis man has been arrested and charged with felonies after allegedly pulling out a gun and threatening staff at a historic gay bar in the city.
Hennepin County prosecutors say Conell Walter Harris, 30, entered 19 Bar, the oldest continuously operating LGBTQ bar in Minneapolis, located in the city’s Loring Park neighborhood, on Monday.
He quickly attracted the attention of other customers, who claimed he was “acting strangely,” according to Minnesota Public Radio News.
When an employee asked Harris for his ID, Harris became visibly upset. When a different employee asked Harris to leave, he allegedly pulled out a gun, held it in his hand, and said, “I ain’t going nowhere,” reports Minneapolis ABC affiliate KAKE.
Harris allegedly “squared up” with the employee, prompting a patron to insert themselves between Harris and the bartender in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, according to court documents. But Harris threatened both the employee and the patron, telling them, “Watch what the f— you’re saying,” and “I’m going to f— you up.”
Harris then exited the bar, telling the bartender, “I’ll f—ing kill your dyke ass” as he left.
Witnesses say Harris later re-entered the bar and began playing pool before officers arrived on scene. Police say Harris resisted arrest and repeatedly reached into his sweatshirt pocket. Officers allegedly recovered a .45 caliber Glock on Harris’s person.
Harris faces felony charges of making violent threats and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
The incident comes less than two weeks after a mass shooting at an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which killed five and injured 20 others. The alleged shooter in that case, Anderson Lee Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary, was stopped after two patrons tackled them, beat them with their own gun, and restrained them until police could arrive.
Last week, a man in Atlanta was arrested for allegedly making “terroristic threats” towards at least two LGBTQ nightclubs. The suspect in that cases, Chase Staub, allegedly posted videos to Instagram that appeared to imply he intended to shoot up one club. Staub entered the second club in person and allegedly made threats to patrons and employees before being asked to leave.
The FBI has arrested a Florida man who allegedly posted an image of an automatic rifle with a message threatening to kill gay people in a mass shooting at Florida State University last month.
Sean Michael Albert, 19, of Winter Park, Florida, was arrested on Jan. 3 on a federal charge of making an interstate communication to threaten to injure another person. On Jan. 4, during a hearing in federal court, U.S. Magistrate Judge Embry Kidd, of U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, ordered Albert to be detained until trial, reports the Tallahassee Democrat.
Two people were arrested on Monday for breaking into a New York City Council member's apartment building, allegedly in reaction to his support of a drag-themed event at a local library.
Erica Sanchez, 44, and D'Anna Morgan, 27, were arrested on Monday and charged with trespassing for allegedly breaking into the apartment building of openly New York Council Member Erik Bottcher (D-Manhattan) around 5 p.m. on Monday.
The two had allegedly been part of a group protesting a Drag Story Hour event at the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library in New York City, a branch of the New York Public Library, last Saturday.
Police in New York City are searching for a man who allegedly yelled an anti-gay slur at a woman in a Bronx deli before attacking her.
The woman, 25, was inside 120 Circle Deli on Hugh Grant Circle near Virginia Avenue, in the Bronx's Unionport neighborhood around 11:25 a.m. last week when she was suddenly accosted by the man,
The man reportedly yelled, "F****t!" before slugging her in the mouth, according to police.
The woman fell to the ground, and the attacker ran out of the deli, escaping via a Pelham-bound No. 6 train, reports the New York Daily News.
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