Hennepin County prosecutors announced today they were filing felony terroristic threat charges against 55-year old Lloyd Johnson following an incident last month in which he pulled a pistol on a group of Somali teens at an Eden Prairie McDonald’s. He is also being charged with a gross misdemeanor for carrying a pistol without a permit. (Minnesota is not an open carry state and also requires anyone to have a permit to conceal carry.)
Video showing a part of the incident circulated quickly on social media in the aftermath of the event.
The criminal complaint stated that the alternation began when one of the teens was having difficulty using a digital app to pay for their meal. Matters escalated from there:
According to the criminal complaint, police spoke to two young women on Nov. 19, who said they were attempting to pay for their food with a digital app, but it was not working. Johnson was behind them and he told them to hurry up and then said “you were probably trying to pay with EBT,” the Electronic Benefit Transfer card used to transfer federal government benefits to stores that accept the benefits.
According the prosecutors, it took over a week to acquire security footage from McDonald’s in order to see the whole sequence of events.
The full criminal complaint can be found here.
Minnesota is home to the largest number of Somali immigrants in the country.
Updates are possible as prosecutors move forward.
UPDATE: A local t.v. report carries quotes from the kids involved, along with Hennepin County Attorney, Mike Freeman.