The Punta Gorda Police Department arrested an Illinois man for threatening to kill Democrats at a bar with a folding box cutter knife and pliers.
The incident happened Sunday afternoon at Shorty’s Place, a local bar off Marion Avenue in Punta Gorda.
According to witnesses, Adam Carls, 37, approached customers and began asking if they were Democrats or Republicans, then said he wanted to hurt Democrats while holding pliers in his hand. Witnesses said Carls then allegedly pulled out a folding box cutter knife and started waving it in patron's faces, telling them that if the pliers didn’t work, the knife would.
Bar staff called 911. Punta Gorda Police arrested Carls at another bar nearby. They found a folding box cutter knife and pliers in his possession. Despite witness statements, Carls reportedly told officers that he had been discussing cow farming, not making threats.
The bar manager told police that Carls had consumed four beers while at Shorty’s Place. He was arrested and taken to the Charlotte County Jail, charged with disturbing the peace and improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon.
A bar regular told NBC2 he met Carls at a different restaurant a week earlier.
Chip Slayton said, "I had met him over a week earlier at a different restaurant, and I was doing some painting to help the owner. And he said to me, 'Tell you what, brother, I'm having a bad day. I think I'm going to kill a Democrat. And go to prison today.' And I think it was because I was wearing a blue hat instead of this black hat. And I said, 'No, it's just a blue hat. It's got nothing to do. I'm not in any politics or anything' in a sort of calm him down."
Chip Slayton said, " I was sitting at the inside bar, and he was sitting about eight seats away from me, and all of a sudden he wasn't there. I was keeping an eye on him because of what happened before. And about two minutes later, the bartender runs back into the bar and says to the bar back, 'Hey, I need you out here.' And that's when it all went down, which was right behind where you're standing, where apparently threatened somebody with a knife. Then he went back over to F.M. Don's, which was the restaurant where he threatened me. And at that point he sat down, tried to get a drink. The bar back here from Shorty's chased him down, found him, told the bartender, 'Don't serve him. The cops are on the way.' And that's where they arrested him — was in front of that restaurant."
Andrew Owens also witnessed the incident on Sunday.
Owens said, "He kept saying 'Democrats, Democrats.' Donald Trump won, so why would you be so upset with the Democrats? Trump won. You won. Move on. Am I wrong?"