A Kilmichael man had charges of exhibiting a firearm and filing a false police report dismissed but was found guilty of disturbing the peace for an incident that occurred on Wednesday night at Pilot Travel Center in Winona.
Keith Bland went before Judge Alan D. Lancaster last Thursday morning in Winona Municipal Court.
Bland was alleged to have brandished an AR-15 after an argument with Tyree Lockhart at Pilot. He also was charged with disturbing the peace after refusing the orders of Officer James Burnett and was charged with filing a false police report after attempting to file charges on Lockhart.
Lockhart testified that the night of the incident, he was at Pilot filling his car with fuel before heading to Vicksburg for work. He said he walked into the store and saw Bland and he spoke to him.
“I said, ‘What’s up Keith?’ Cause I know him and he snapped off on me,” Lockhart told the court.
He said Bland cursed him and called him names. However, Lockhart said he brushed it off, made a purchase, and walked out of the store.
He said Bland was outside talking to someone else and again called him a punk and used the same language towards him.
“I ain’t gone let nobody talk to me like that. I told him ‘Keith, you don’t know me. I’ll bust you in your head,’” Lockhart said.
He said he told him that he “had something for him” and proceeded to his truck to get a blinding bar.
Lockhart said he wasn’t near his truck when Bland walked towards him and took out an AR-15. He said after he saw the gun, he called the police. Lockhart said the two continued to have words with each other until the police arrived on the scene.
Officers James Burnett, Bobby Edwards, Orlando Bolden and Captain Matt Milletello all testified in the matter. Burnett and Edwards, along with Montgomery County Deputy Cordaris Gholston, responded to the scene.
Burnett was the first with the WPD to arrive, followed by Gholston and Edwards. He said when he arrived on scene, Lockhart was at his truck and Bland was at his and the two were arguing. He said Edwards and Gholston remained outside, and he went inside to talk to witnesses.
“They said that Keith had been there all night harassing them,” he said.
Burnett told the court that an employee with Taco Bell said he saw the ordeal between Bland and Lockhart occur.
“He said he thought to himself ‘I know this man ain’t fixing to shoot this man in front of all these people,’” Burnett said.
He said he and Gholston disarmed Bland’s AR-15, Gholston ran the serial number, and it came back clean – meaning it wasn’t stolen – and registered to Bland.
