Intoxicated Man Accused of Pointing Pistol at Neighbors

A Buford man is facing numerous charges after an Oct. 27 incident in which he allegedly pointed a gun at one neighbor and waved it at others.

Police were dispatched to the 500 block of Garner Street after a caller advised a very intoxicated man in an orange t-shirt was brandishing a semi-automatic pistol. When police arrived, they immediately spotted the man, later identified as Nabor Tapia, standing in the front yard of a nearby home. When Tapia saw the officers, he reportedly ran behind the home. Witnesses directed officers to Tapia’s hiding spot and he was quickly taken into custody but did not have the gun in his possession.

One of the officers asked Tapia’s wife if he could search the property for the weapon and the woman gave her consent. As the officer approached the front porch, he saw a half-empty bottle of tequila, approximately 10 empty beer bottles, an air rifle and a white towel.

“The neighbors across the street yelled for me to look under the towel,” the officer wrote in the arrest report. He did and found a black, semi-automatic handgun.

When questioned by police, Tapia reportedly said he bought the gun from a man in Alabama several weeks ago.

“I asked Tapia if he had pointed the gun at anyone or was he waving it in public,” the officer wrote. “Tapia said he was just drunk and it was okay.”

One of the neighbors informed the officer that Tapia frequently gets “very drunk” and walks around waving the pistol and yelling things at neighbors. The man said earlier that evening he saw Tapia waving the pistol near a crowd of people so he told Tapia to go back to his house and put the gun away. According to the neighbor, Tapia pointed the gun at him and threatened to kill him. The neighbor said he then ran back inside and everyone else fled as well.

Tapia was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail on charges of aggravated assault, reckless conduct and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. He remains jailed on a hold from another agency.

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