Florida Police Issued An Arrest Warrant For A White Man Who Pulled A Gun On Black College Students

A viral Twitter video captured the suspect harassing a group of college juniors and blocking them from entering an off-campus housing complex.

These are the kind of people that are burning Nike products , we are sick of the discrimination 🗣 never thought I’d have a personal experience with racism like this, this man pulled a gun on us because we were walking up to my friends apartment w/o a key https://t.co/TlMFQjoM1N

Florida authorities are moving to arrest a white man who pulled a gun out in front of several black college students in an apparent attempt to stop them from entering an apartment building.

Police in Tallahassee issued an arrest warrant for Donald Crandall Jr. on Friday, a little over a week after he was captured in a viral Twitter video apparently threatening four black college juniors from Florida A&M University at an off-campus housing complex. The video showed Crandall — who was not a resident of the building — pulling out a gun as the students tried to get in an elevator to go to a classmate's apartment.

"After reviewing all of the evidence and consulting with the State Attorney’s Office, a warrant was obtained for Donald Crandall, Jr., for 'Improper Exhibition of a Firearm,'" police said in a statement, noting that detectives began investigating the incident on Sept. 10.

Crandall was a general manager at the Baymont Inn & Suites by Wyndham Hotels in Tallahassee but was fired after the video of him and the students went viral earlier this month.

Tallahassee police spokesperson Damon Miller told reporters Saturday that Crandall had not yet been arrested and that authorities did "not know his whereabouts at this time." The department did not respond to BuzzFeed News' request for updates Sunday.

One of the students, Isaiah Butterfield, recorded part of the 10-minute encounter with Crandall, which took place as he and his friends were trying to get into the Stadium Centre apartments to attend a party hosted by a classmate.

"We were shook because we hadn’t said anything to him," Butterfield told BuzzFeed News last week. "He came at us for no reason."

Stadium Centre said in a statement that Crandall does not live in the apartment complex and does not have any affiliation with the building's owners or management.

Crandall has not made any public comment regarding the incident.

The video captured part of an initial encounter between the students and Crandall, followed by a subsequent confrontation inside an elevator bay, where the suspect demanded to know whether the young men had a key.

Crandall is then seen producing a gun and holding it while he tells the four students, “If you don’t got a key to this building, you don’t belong in the elevator.”

Butterfield said Sunday that he and his friends are still stunned that Crandall lashed out at them for "absolutely no reason."

"Justice hasn’t been served yet but he is getting exactly what he deserves," he added.


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