RALEIGH, N.C. — A man with a lengthy criminal record was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning outside of the LGBT club Ruby Deluxe, in Raleigh.
27-year-old Grayson Pittman got into a verbal altercation with the person working the door at the club, and was refused entry for his aggressive behavior.
After being denied entry, Pittman pulled a gun, a .22 caliber pistol, from his backpack, placed it on his hip and began hurling anti-gay slurs. The club called the police, and Pittman left. Police caught up with him nearby and searched him, finding the gun, a fixed knife blade and a taser when they searched him.Â
Pittman has now been arrested 12 times since 2010.
Police charged him with two counts of carrying a concealed weapon and one count of disorderly conduct, all of which are misdemeanors.
Pittman was freed on $1,500 bail after being booked into the Wake County Detention Center, reports The News & Observer. He is scheduled for a court appearance April 17.Â
He apologized on Ruby Deluxe’s Facebook page, Spectrum News reports.
“I apologize to Ruby’s and the staff for my actions and choice of words…I made a mistake and very poor judgment…the guy next to the door guy as I was leaving was threatening my life after I made some rude comments which is why things got out of hand…no excuses what I did was wrong and I apologize!” he wrote.
As the paper also noted, it is not illegal in North Carolina to bring a concealed gun into an establishment that serves alcohol, so long as that person doesn’t drink while there.Â
“I am so grateful that he didn’t get into the club,” the owner, Tim Lemuel, told ABC11. “And, in the future we’re actually putting in a ‘no backpacks’ policy. I own three clubs in Raleigh and we’re gonna put in a ‘no backpacks’ policy in all of those just to make sure that doesn’t happen. And we’re gonna tell everybody else they probably should do the same thing.”
