Tacoma man pulls a gun on his bartender, then flips the bird to police, documents say

The Tacoma police officer asked the drunken driver suspected of pulling a gun on a bartender Thursday to put his hands outside the window of his truck.

The driver replied by sticking his left hand out the window, middle finger extended, and told the officer a profane translation of his gesture, Pierce County prosecutors say.

The 52-year-old Tacoma man was arraigned Monday in Pierce County Superior Court on two counts of second-degree assault and one count of driving under the influence. He was released on electronic home monitoring under the condition he not consume alcohol or contact the victims.

According to charging documents:

The man walked into a bar in the 3500 block of McKinley Avenue about 11 p.m. and started an argument with a patron.

The two went out into the alley to settle it — the Tacoma man accompanied by a friend — and the bartender went outside to tell them all to take it elsewhere.

The Tacoma man pulled a revolver on the barkeep and his foe, who ran back into the bar, locked the door and called 911.

The man fled in his truck south on McKinley Avenue, his friend in the passenger seat. Police caught up to him about two miles south of the bar on McKinley and pulled him over.

The officer ordered the man to keep his hands outside the truck, but he stayed in the cab and responded with a one-finger salute and repeated swear words.

The man eventually got out of the truck, which prompted officers to tell him to put his hands up and face away from them. Instead, he looked at them, walked toward them, flipped them off again, then offered a vulgar proposition — complete with hand gesture.

The officers each grabbed one of the man’s arms and took him to the ground. In the process, they noticed he was reeking of booze.

A silver revolver, fully loaded, was in the man’s pants pocket, and he had a semiautomatic handgun in his truck’s cup holder.

Officers tested the man’s blood-alcohol level twice, registering about 0.15 each time.

This story was originally published October 1, 2018 at 7:18 PM.