A 29-year-old Minneapolis man has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for an incident in which he threatened to shoot up the oldest continuously operating gay bar in Minneapolis last year.
According to court documents, on Nov. 28, 2022, Minneapolis police officers were called to respond to a disturbance at the historic 19 Bar, in downtown Minneapolis.
When officers arrived on the scene, several people pointed to a man — later identified as Conell Walter Harris — and accused him of pulling out a gun after being told to leave the bar.
Harris resisted arrest and tried to reach into the pocket of his hooded sweatshirt. After detaining him, police recovered a stolen .45 caliber Glock model 30 pistol from Harris’s pocket.
Upon interviewing other bar patrons, police determined that Harris had entered the gay bar and began “acting strangely.” When an employee asked him to show his ID, he became upset, allegedly saying, “I ain’t going nowhere.”
The bartender asked Harris to leave, but he refused and pulled out a gun, threatening to shoot up the bar. According to court documents, Harris reportedly told employees, “What watch the fuck you’re saying,” and “I’m going to fuck you up.”
A customer got in between Harris and the bartender and tried to de-escalate the situation. Harris allegedly used profanities and shouted, “I’ll fucking kill your d**e ass” at the bartender before leaving the building. Someone called the police to complain, and by the time officers arrived on the scene, Harris had returned to the bar and was playing pool.
In April, Harris pleaded guilty to one felony count of illegally possessing a firearm. Prosecutors had asked for a five-year sentence, arguing that Harris has four prior felony convictions, including two involving possessing a firearm.
“This incident could have resulted in serious injury to Mr. Harris or bystanders,” prosecutors argued in a court filing.
As noted by LGBTQ Nation, Harris’s attorney argued that Harris only be sentenced to three years in prison, claiming that the 29-year-old had a difficult childhood, was shot when he was 16, and faced psychological challenges, including drug addiction, throughout his life.
Harris’s attorney argued that Harris was “confused and upset” when the bar wouldn’t accept a picture on his phone as a form of ID, and, when he tried to explain himself, was told to leave. The attorney also argued that Harris didn’t point the gun at anyone in particular and believed he was “acting in self-defense” because an employee had touched him when asking him to leave.
On August 8, Harris was sentenced by Senior Judge David S. Doty to 57 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. In addition to the federal firearms charge, he also faces state charges stemming from the incident, including making threats of violence with reckless disregard of risk.
Harris’s threat to shoot up 19 Bar, which has been in operation since 1957, making it one of the country’s oldest continuously operating gay bars, came amid a backdrop of increased threats against LGBTQ nightlife spaces.
The same month that Harris was arrested, a man in Georgia was arrested for allegedly making threats of gun violence on social media against two gay bars in Atlanta. The suspect in that case, Chase Staub, was arrested and charged with terroristic threats and acts and disorderly conduct, although he was released on bond.
The following month, police in West Hollywood, California, received a report that a patron of The Abbey, a well-known gay bar, had been spotted by one of the bar’s security guards attempting to hand a gun off to another patron. The suspect did not make any verbal threats against the bar or staff, and no arrest was made in the incident.
An anonymous homophobe sent a vicious, threatening email to the wife of WNBA superstar and three-time Olympic gold medalist Breanna Stewart.
According to the New York Post, Stewart's wife, Marta Xargay Casademont, walked into the New York Police Department's 78th Precinct, in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, on October 10 to inform police of the menacing email.
"I hope someone shoots your wife dead, fuck you dykes, I hope you both die," the email allegedly read, in part. It reportedly contained other heinous statements and threats.
According to the Post, a memo by NBA security said the email was sent from an Internet address that has been associated with other hateful emails, including death threats, bomb threats, and racist rhetoric.
A Denver gay bar had its Yelp page flooded with bad reviews after three Republican gay men accused the establishment of discriminating against them due to political beliefs.
TikTok user @5280basedhomo, whose real name is Rich Guggenheim, posted a video claiming that he and two other gay conservatives -- Chris ("TheMidwestHomo") and Valdamar Archuleta, the Republican nominee in Colorado's 1st Congressional District, which includes Denver -- tried to enter "Buddies" on Saturday afternoon, October 5.
Guggenheim claims they were told they must pay a $40 cover charge. He further said non-Republican gay people were allowed to enter without paying a cover.
A Philadelphia jury found Kylen Pratt guilty of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and possession of an instrument of crime in the killing of 20-year-old Naasire Johnson on Sept. 27.
Three days later, Judge Giovanni Campbell sentenced the 23-year-old to a mandatory life sentence in state prison, without the possibility of parole, followed by a consecutive sentence of four-and-a-half to nine years.
Prosecutors claimed that Pratt, who was involved romantically with Johnson while also dating women, had killed the 20-year-old to conceal their relationship.
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