MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “He done pulled a gun on me. I’m scared for my life,” Kevin Henry shouted.
A stop to use the bathroom in Orange Mound quickly got out of control.
“Get out of here. I’ve asked you to leave. I’m the owner,” a business owner said.
Video posted on Facebook showed the owner of Maytag Laundry on Lamar Avenue toting a gun and telling a man to leave his store.
Henry, the person behind the camera, claimed he was discriminated against and called the n-word.
“This man just racist. He just pulled a gun on me and tried to shoot me, bro,” Henry said.
“If you don’t want no problems, don’t bring none,” a customer said. “It ain’t take for no gun to be in no washer.”
People WREG showed the video to were upset and said the store owner took things too far.
“He needs to cut — he was wrong. Y’all know he was wrong,” the customer said.
Memphis Police told WREG they have reviewed the video and never saw the owner point the gun at Henry or shout racial slurs.
“You see I don’t got no gun. You can search me,” Henry said after a worker told him to stop reaching into his pockets.
An Orange Mound resident asked, “Well the guy didn’t have anything, right?”
Police did not say in the police report if they found any weapons on Henry, but officers said he revealed he has mental issues and had not taken his medication.
Henry allegedly told police he wanted to kill himself and others.
He was admitted to the hospital.
“Help! Oh yeah, you done *bleeped* up now,” Henry is heard shouting in the video.
Other store owners in the area, who did not want to be identified, thought pulling out the gun was justified.
“Get out and stay out,” the owner said.
Neighboring businesses said it appeared the owner was trying to protect himself and his customers.
“It should have been — just say get out and that should have been it,” a neighbor said.
“Y’all need to look into this stuff. Investigate it and get to the bottom of it.”