By Michelle Krupa, Staff writer
Copyright 2006 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
Possibly inflamed by the sight of his girlfriend dancing with another man, a 34-year-old Covington man allegedly walked out of a north shore nightclub late Friday, pulled an AR-15 rifle from his car and sprayed 30 rounds outside the club before federal agents subdued him, police and the club’s owner said.
Tony R. Lambert, of 20 Dewberry Road, was charged with two counts of attempted first degree murder of a federal agent and eight other crimes in connection with the 11:18 p.m. shooting spree, which came within yards of the packed Columbia Street Tap Room & Grill, Covington police spokesman Lt. Jack West said.
No one was hurt, but bullets pierced an exterior wall of the club at North Columbia and East Lockwood streets in downtown Covington, along with several vehicles and a cargo trailer parked outside, he said.
“At no point was he ever in the bar with a gun,” club owner Steve Ahrons said.
Lambert, a registered nurse, was brought down by a pair of federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents who happened to be at the club. When the shooting erupted, the agents rushed toward the gunfire, West said.
“With bullets shooting through the cars they were using for cover, the agents were able to work their way towards Lambert,” he said. “They charged Lambert when he stopped shooting to reload. They were able to disarm him and wrestle him to the ground just as Covington units arrived.”
Local police, who sped to the scene from their office about a block away when they heard shots, arrested Lambert and seized the rifle, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, West said. Once detained, Lambert tried to kick open the door of the squad car, forcing officers to subdue him with pepper spray, police said.
Questioned later, Lambert appeared “highly intoxicated,” West said.
Lambert also was charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer with a firearm, four counts of criminal damage to property, one count of aggravated assault on patrons of the nightclub and one count of illegal use of a weapon. He remained in the St. Tammany Parish jail without bond late Saturday, a jail spokesman said.
Ahrons said police told him Lambert’s shooting may have been sparked when his girlfriend started dancing with another man.
Ahrons, operator of the Tap Room music club and restaurant for a decade, said five security guards were on duty at the time of the incident: two at the front door, two at the back door and one keeping an eye on the scene inside.
The staffing was “an above-normal amount of security for me,” said Ahrons, who was expecting a big turnout for The Boogiemen, a local band.
In addition, he recently had asked city police and the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office to step up patrols in the area, which has grown busier since families displaced by Hurricane Katrina added to the north shore’s already rapid growth rate.
Ahrons said he didn’t pay much attention to Lambert among about 150 patrons who packed the place Friday. Lambert didn’t appear to be so drunk that the bar staff quit serving him, and didn’t make a fuss as he left the club, the owner said.
In fact, Ahrons didn’t initially think of gunfire when he heard popping noises in the typically peaceful downtown area.
“It sounded like somebody had thrown a pack of firecrackers out of their window,” he said, adding that pandemonium never took hold inside the club. “People cleared away from the back door and the window, but at no point were there people lying on the ground.”
The band took a half-hour break.
Ahrons said the shooting incident was perhaps the worst blow to the family business since a fire in 1998 ripped through the historic 1906 Seiler Building that houses it. Heartened by supportive phone calls from neighbors and patrons Saturday, he was frustrated at the prospect of random violence, saying, “I just don’t know how to guard against that.”
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Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3312.
Tony Lambert Nurse arrested after allegedly spraying bullets outside club [2243470] Sgt. Steve Culotta shows off a rifle allegedly used outside a Covington nightclub late Friday. [2243468]
March 12, 2006