A man was arrested early yesterday morning for allegedly pulling a gun on a fellow patron of Smokey Joe's after an argument broke out between several of his friends and another man. The manager of Smoke's, located at 210 S. 40th Street, called 911 a little before 2 a.m., reported that a customer had gone outside to his car and retrieved a gun, and was pointing the weapon at another customer. "Somebody just suddenly saw a gun and alerted the manager," University Police Det. Supervisor Frank DeMeo said. Police would not release the name of the man who was arrested for the assault, although it was confirmed that he was not a University student. Smoke's owner Pat Ryan said the man who pulled the gun wasn't even one of the customers who had been causing the disturbance. "Nobody even knew who these guys wanted to fight," he said. "This guy [the alleged assailant] wasn't even fighting. He wasn't even causing a problem. Ryan said the alleged assailant went outside initially to calm his friends down and help diffuse the situation. "He was trying to get his two friends to leave, and then all of a sudden he had a BB-gun at his waist," Ryan said. By the time Philadelphia Police officers arrived at the scene, the alleged assailant had locked the gun inside the trunk of his car. "The man then refused to open the trunk for police," DeMeo said. Philadelphia Police arrested the man and confiscated his car until a search warrant could be obtained. "At this time, the man is only being charged with simple assault," DeMeo noted. University Police did not have the identity of the man at whom the gun was being pointed. Police could also not speculate as to what caused such an incident between the two men.
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