US: Man shoots gay couple with BB gun
A 43-year-old Minneapolis man is charged with shooting a gay couple with a BB gun after going on a homophobic tirade in a bar Thursday night.
Wayne Steven Odegard harassed customers at The Saloon, a Minneapolis gay bar, hurling homophobic slurs aimed at a gay couple from Brooklyn and Pittsburgh.
Odegard allegedly pulled out a BB gun inside the bar, and shot the couple in the legs as they tried to flee.
Tyler Erikson, A security guard for The Saloon, chased Odegard out of the bar and tackled him while Odegard quoted the Bible.
Erikson said: “He told me multiple times that I’m going to hell and he’s going to bring me with him. He recited a biblical passage – I think it was a Deuteronomy passage.”
Erikson said the couple “joked that they came to progressive Minneapolis and got shot for being gay,” though neither of them were seriously injured from the shooting.
Odegard is charged with second-degree assault and gun possession.
