LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Chinese restaurant owner captured on video holding a teen at gunpoint with a BB gun in June is now facing criminal charges.
A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Fabao Chen, 59, for wanton endangerment and unlawful imprisonment in connection to the June 4 incident, in which witnesses said Chen grabbed a 13-year-old boy in the parking lot of Kroger at Broadway and 27th Street and forcibly took him approximately 150 yards across the parking lot to his Double Dragon restaurant on West Broadway.
The jury chose not to indict Chen on a kidnapping charge.
According to police, a crowd of witnesses tried to intervene when they saw what was happening, which led to an altercation at the Double Dragon that was captured on a witness' cellphone camera. In the video, Chen is seen pointing the gun, later revealed to be a BB gun, at members of the crowd.
"The man grabbed him by the arm and pulled a gun out and told him, 'No, you be still! You be still!' I was like, 'Hey, get that gun off of him!'" said Sean Jenkins, who recorded the incident on his phone. "So then he turned the gun toward me. And I just said, 'Just keep the gun on me, man. Cool? Keep it off the kid.' So then he turned the gun toward me."
In an initial court appearance, Chen said through a translator that the teenager threw a broken bottle inside his restaurant. Denise Mannion, the boy's mother, disputes that claim.
Chen's circuit court case is set for arraignment in Division 3 at 9:30 a.m. July 22.
Related Stories:
- Police: Bystanders intervene to stop kidnapping at west Louisville Kroger
- Mother of teen in reported west Louisville kidnapping describes anger, outrage
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