A local businessman who was charged with a hate crime following an incident in downtown Flossmoor last month, has denied using racial slurs and claims he fired his gun only because he felt threatened.
Bryan Oedzes of Dyer, Ind., who was charged Aug. 30 with a hate crime and aggravated discharge of a firearm, said he has hired an attorney and will “let the facts play out” in court.
Oedzes said he owns his own import/export business in South Holland but was helping at a local Flossmoor business the night of the incident.
A social media group has made threats against him as a result of the incident, he said.
Deputy Police Chief Ted Kamleiter said there are no police reports of those threats but Oedzes did discuss the alleged threats with police.
Oedzes said he has been part of the Flossmoor community for 20 years, and loves its diversity.
“This hate crime is my biggest concern,” he said. “I take that very seriously.”
According to police, at 11:30 p.m. Aug. 22, police were notified that a man outside a Flossmoor restaurant was “yelling and screaming about someone trying to shoot him.”
At the same time police got that call, Kamleiter said, a motorist came to the police station after witnessing a shooting outside the restaurant, the police report stated.
The victim was “intoxicated … upset and yelling,” police said. He told police he got off the Metra train and was headed to Homewood-Flossmoor High School.
He was walking down the west sidewalk in the 1000 block of Sterling Avenue when he was confronted by Oedzes, who allegedly told him, “You need to get the (expletive) out of here. You don’t belong here,” according to the police report.
A Flossmoor police news release summarizing the incident said Oedzes “yelled a racial slur at the victim,” but did not elaborate. Oedzes, who is white, said Tuesday that the other man was black.
After telling the other man to leave, Oedzes allegedly pulled out a pistol and pointed it at him, and the victim told police he turned and ran toward the restaurant when Oedzes fired one shot, the report stated. The victim told police he saw Oedzes point the gun toward the sky, before he turned and ran.
Officers attempted to speak to the victim in more depth, but “due to his intoxicated state” he could not provide any more information, so they escorted him home with plans to interview him later, according to the police report.
Oedzes, however, said he had been working at a local business with a friend and had taken a break.On their way back from the break, they saw the man walking down the middle of the street, acting “very unusual” and making it clear he was “extraordinarily intoxicated.”
“I wanted to make sure he got out of the street and didn’t get hurt,” Oedzes said. “Unfortunately, he approached us.”
Oedzes said he has multiple sclerosis and is unable to physically defend himself, and he also was concerned for the safety of the woman accompanying him. He has a concealed carry permit from the State of Indiana, he said.
“We were faced with an imminent and serious threat,” he said. “I asked him not to come any nearer, but he kept walking toward me. Once he saw I had a gun, he walked away.”
But Oedzes said he still did not feel safe, because he had to turn his back on the man to cross the street and return to the business where he had been working .
“I told him to keep his hands where I could see them. I didn’t know what he was going to do. He was so intoxicated, he was talking incoherently,” he said.
When the man came toward him, Oedzes said he fired a “warning shot, so he would know I was serious.
“I had no intention of hurting him. It was just to buy me some time and get him to leave,” he said.
Kamleiter said that Oedzes has a concealed carry permit, but said it was issued by the State of Indiana, so he can only carry a gun inside the business, not outside in public.
Oedzes said he is due back in court on Sept. 21.
