A video of a confrontation at an apartment building in Tallahassee last Saturday night has gone viral, showing a man draw a firearm on four students trying to enter. The four juniors, from Florida A&M University, were waiting to get into their friend's apartment that evening for a party when the man in question allegedly accosted them, claiming to live in the building.
The man, who stated he was a resident of the Stadium Centre apartments, argued with the group, before pulling a gun out to stop them from getting in an elevator. One of the students, Isaiah Butterfield, captured part of the 10-minute altercation on video and posted it to Twitter. Since then, the apartment complex has confirmed that the man in the video is not even a resident of the building, which is mostly used as off-campus housing for college students.
“Firearms are prohibited on our property and we take this matter very seriously,” Stadium Centre’s management said in a message sent to its residents, that Butterfield shared with BuzzFeed News. “Moreover, we are firmly committed to creating a diverse residential community that is inclusive and welcoming to all.”
Butterfield was accompanied by three other black students - Stephen Brooks, Joshua Cosby, and Fitzroy Rhoden - as he waited at the garage entrance to the building. Another friend had recently moved into the building and was throwing a party. As they waited for their friend to let them in, a man in a baseball cap walked past them. Butterfield told BuzzFeed News:
“Then he turned and he said, 'you aren’t getting in here if you don't have a key'. We were shook because we hadn’t said anything to him we were just standing there and then he closed the door and locked it.
“He came at us for no reason and that’s when Chad [a white student with them in the video] walked up and I started recording. Chad stood up for us and pushed back on the guy and said we could come in with him.”
Chad asked the man what his problem was, then added, “You’re not just man enough to go about your day... you’re just wanting to run your mouth".
When Chad asked him where he was going, the man said: “Where am I going? I am going upstairs to get laid, where are you going... limp d**k."
They then pressed him on his claims that he lived there, since it was student housing with mostly 20-year-old residents. According to Butterfield, "he looked like he was 45," which calls into question his reasoning for going there to "get laid" with a gun in his possession.
Butterfield continued:
“My friend had asked him, ‘do you even live here?’ when he blocked the elevator with his body and then he pulled out his keys and his gun and separated them. He made sure we saw that he had a gun so we didn't get in the elevator.
“We tried to not let it blow our night but it did. At the time it felt so unreal but we slept on it and once we woke up in the morning and processed what happened we decided to report it to the police.”
Given the fact that just last week, an off-duty police officer shot and killed a black man in his own home after mistakenly entering his apartment, a man brandishing a gun in this way is more than a little unnerving.
Detectives are currently conducting interviews and as of yet made no arrests. A spokesperson for Florida A&M University, a historically black college in the state capital, said that the school is looking into the incident. Stadium Centre’s management confirmed on Monday that it is cooperating fully with the police's investigation.
