CHARLOTTE — A 20-year-old is facing charges after a gun that was aimed at him was fired, and the bullet hit someone else.
Security guards at Club Onyx were clearing a lot near the nightclub when they got into an argument with Rylee Koenders, according to police reports.
The guards told police that Koenders got into his car before getting back out with a gun and pointing it at them.
One of the security guards said he perceived a threat and fired at Koenders, police reports said.
Walter Kimble is a retired police chief who now works as a security consultant. He said the guards had to make a split-second decision.
“They perceived the immediacy of a deadly threat and fired their firearms back at him,” he said.
Proper training should have helped with making the decision, Kimble said.
“Many times, in situations like this, it has to be a split-second decision,” he said. “What am I going to do? Am I going to shoot or be shot?”
But documents say the bullet did not hit Koenders. It hit another person in the car, from whom Koenders got the gun.
Koenders and the person who was shot ran away and hid in the woods until police found them, records say.
No matter who the bullet hit, court documents say police believe the security guards were in the right.
Koenders said he was moving the gun, but that he never pointed it at the guards. Police still charged him with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.
He is in jail on a $500,000 bond, according to jail records.
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