A Kentucky man was arrested after allegedly pulling a gun on a couple because they were wearing “Make America Great Again” hats.
The “MAGA” hats are worn by supporters of President Donald Trump.
According to a police report obtained by WBKO, police officers in Bowling Green were called to a Sam’s Club on Feb. 16 about a person with a gun.
Terry Pierce, the alleged victim, said that the other man, identified as James Phillips, pulled a gun because he and his wife were wearing the hats.
Pierce said he was shopping in the Sam’s Club when his wife noticed Phillips making an expletive gesture at her and her husband. She asked him if he had made the gesture and he said he did because of the hats.
Pierce told the Gateway Pundit that he responded with the same gesture and said, “It goes both ways, buddy.”
That’s when Phillips pulled a .40 caliber out and stuck it in his face and said, “This is a good day for you to die,” Pierce said.
“I told him to pull the trigger or put the gun down and fight me like a man—and he repeated ‘It’s a good day for you to die.’ I repeated, ‘Pull the trigger or put the gun down and fight me like a man.’ We had a very intense verbal interaction with each other and he started backing away,” Pierce added.
13 News spoke with the alleged victim, Terry Pierce. Hear what he says happened in the story below. https://t.co/Kb231iABRc
— WBKO Television (@wbkotv) February 18, 2019
Phillips fled the store. A Sam’s Club manager approached and asked Pierce if Phillips had just pulled a gun and when Pierce said yes, the manager called the police.
Pierce then went outside to look for Phillips.
“I went out the front of the store to confront him again and that’s when I got him in his car. He couldn’t leave because his mother was still in the store. And we were having a verbal altercation outside,” Pierce told WBKO. “He tried telling me I assaulted him and I said, ‘I never touched you.'”
Police officers said video surveillance confirmed that Pierce did not touch Phillips. Witnesses in addition to Pierce said that Phillips pulled a gun on Pierce inside the store.
When officers arrived, they found Phillips with a Glock .40 caliber with a round chambered in his back pocket and two magazines in another pocket. He has a current concealed carry permit for Tennessee but not for Kentucky.
Phillips was arrested for first-degree wanton endangerment and booked into the Warren County Regional Jail. Pierce told the Gateway Pundit he and his wife would continue wearing the “MAGA” hats.
“I have every right to support my country and my president—and I proudly wear this hat as a symbol of trying to help Make America Great Again!” he said. “I’m not ashamed or afraid to wear this hat. I’m not a racist, xenophobe, sexist, or anything the left accuses our President of—which he isn’t.”
Sandy Creek principal replaced after denouncing district’s ‘MAGA hat-wearing culture’ https://t.co/Lo5w9rucel
— syracuse.com (@syracusedotcom) February 12, 2019
The incident came as a New York principal was replaced as the Sandy Creek High School principal after making comments about the culture in her
Emily Wemmer who went on multiple rants about culture in her school district, including saying she was “fighting against an intrenched [sic]” MAGA hat-wearing culture.”
In another post, she said that girls “have the right to walk bare [expletive] naked down the street and not be assaulted. They need to know that.”