PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla.- Charlotte County Sheriff's deputies arrested a Punta Gorda man who produced a shotgun and threatened to kill an employee at a Town Center Mall restaurant at 2 a.m. this morning.

Deputies responded Ali-Gators, 1441 Tamiami Trail, after Daniel Charles Kirk, 28, of 431 Velleta Court, was told to drink up as they were closing and he refused to leave. Kirk became confrontational and flicked a cigarette into an employee’s face. Kirk told the employee he was going to die tonight; the manager got between them and told the employee to go back inside.

Kirk went to his truck, and then drove back to the front of Ali-Gators where he got out and retrieved a shotgun from the back seat. The manager ran across the parking lot and contacted a deputy who was on patrol on S.R. 776. Kirk got back into his red Chevrolet truck and left the mall.

A woman later said she was at the bar with Kirk and he was intoxicated. She also said she heard the sound a shotgun makes when a round is racked into the chamber.

Another deputy heard the call and observed the truck going at a high rate of speed on S.R. 776; it turned down Collingswood Boulevard but the deputy lost sight of the truck. Deputies were notified and eventually stopped Kirk on Edgewater Drive at Bayshore Drive. Kirk was not cooperative and a CCSO K9 bit him; he was transported to Fawcett Memorial Hospital, treated and released and taken to the Charlotte County Jail.

Kirk denied ever owning a shotgun; however, a deputy did locate the Winchester 12 gauge shotgun on Rickardway Avenue off Collingswood Blvd. Deputies also located shotgun shells inside his truck.

Kirk was charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Fleeing to Elude, Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, Resisting Arrest, Battery and Using a Firearm While Under the Influence. This is Kirk’s 13^th booking into the Charlotte County Jail. He remains in jail on a $31,500 bond.