The Goose Creek Police Department has arrested three men in connection with the alleged April 21 kidnapping and assault at Two Keys Tavern. The police department has also finished extracting a clip from video collected at the Goose Creek bar which reportedly shows a suspect beating a man with a pool stick.
On Friday, police arrested Gary Eugene Long, 41, of Summervile; Timothy Dale Lawhorn, 35, of Summerville; and Golden Luis Deleon, 30, of North Charleston. Both Lawhorn and Long are charged with armed robbery with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and assault and battery. Deleon is charged with armed robbery with a deadly weapon and kidnapping. All three men were reportedly employed or by Two Keys. At the time of the incident, Long was manager of Two Keys while Lawhorn and Deleon were bouncers. According to police, Lawhorn assaulted a Two Keys patron with a pool stick.
Following the arrests, Mark Keller, owner of Two Keys Tavern, said in statement that Lawhorn, Long, and Deleon were “no longer employed or associated” with the bar. “This is now in the hands of the police and the courts. It will be up to them to determine where the truth lies,” Keller said. “It’s unfortunate that the incident occurred on the premises of Two Keys Tavern, but those who know us and care about what happens there, know that this type of incident is uncharacteristic of our establishment.”
He added, “We intend to maintain our solid reputation, and I can personally assure everyone who comes here that this type of behavior will not be tolerated. We invite our patrons back so we can personally demonstrate that to each of them.”
According to an earlier incident report, Matthew Paul Laberge, told police that he had been at Two Keys at approximately 6 a.m. on Sat. April 21 “watching other patrons while they gambled on pool games. ” Goose Creek requires all bars, whether they are serving or not, to close at 2 a.m.
At some point, Long allegedly covered the bet of a patron, who later “slipped out the front door without paying his debt.” Laberge then told the officer that the Two Keys manager [Long] “became irate and ordered the bouncers of the establishment to lock the doors.” The report notes that an estimated 20 people, including employees, may have been inside the bar at that point.
Long and “bouncers began demanding that someone come up with the money or someone was going to get hurt.” The officer notes that Laberge “pleaded that he had only been watching while the bets were made.” According to Laberge, things soon became violent: “Laberge stated that the [Lawhorn] … took the thicker end of the pool stick in his hand and approached [victim No. 1] Robert Drawdy from behind.” The report states that at that time, Lawhorn “struck Drawdy in the back of the head with the pool stick, temporarily rendering him unconscious.”
Lawhorn then reportedly set his sights on Laberge, chasing him around the bar before Laberge “took $100 of his own money and threw it on a table.” Shortly thereafter, the report notes that Long then allegedly “unlocked the front door and instructed all the patrons to get out and ‘not to fuck with Two Keys.'” Once the two victims were outside, Laberge noticed that Drawdy was “bleeding heavily from the back of his head,” so the pair went to Trident Hospital. Drawdy had a laceration on his head that was five inches long and one inch wide.
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