Police: Bartender pulls gun on rowdy customers at Crucible bar
{child_flags:featured}Police: Crucible bartender pulls gun on rowdy customers
{child_byline}By Mike Jones
Regional editor
mjones@observer-reporter.com
{/child_byline}
CRUCIBLE – A bartender at the Citizens Club pulled out a handgun to break up an argument at the Crucible watering hole Friday night in a move that police said was “over the top” and endangered other bar patrons.
Crystal D. Andrenok was tending bar at the club shortly before 11 p.m. when Cumberland Township police said two men began arguing over money owed to one of them.
Andrenok asked the men to leave because they were not members of the club at 116 E. First Ave., prompting several other people to come over and begin “yelling” at them, police said. As the group was arguing, Andrenok disappeared behind the bar and returned with a black firearm, which she pointed back and forth at the two men and another person, police said. They left and called police.
Andrenok told police she asked the men to leave, but they did not listen. She said the men threatened her and she denied pointing the gun at the patrons, but investigators said surveillance video of the incident and witness statements contradicted that. Bartenders at the club apparently are permitted to be armed during their shifts as long as they’re not drinking, according to court documents.
Cumberland Township police Chief Bryan Smith said Andrenok should have called police rather than bringing out a weapon.
“There was just an argument between two people and she wanted to de-escalate it by making him leave. They had a gun in their face,” Smith said. “This was definitely an over-the-top reaction to it.”
Smith said Andrenok was permitted to carry the weapon, but he did not think she needed to point it at the patrons to resolve the situation.
“She had a concealed carry and had a right to defend herself, but this went beyond that,” Smith said. “It was just a verbal confrontation, nothing physical. Being in the bar, she didn’t have to do that.”
Andrenok, 39, of 311 E. South St., Carmichaels, was charged with three counts each of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and terroristic threats and one charge of harassment. She was arraigned by District Judge Glenn Bates and released on $15,000 unsecured bond before her Jan. 22 preliminary hearing.