Bruce Vielmetti

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A 25-year-old West Bend man told police he was "blacked out" drunk when witnesses said he pulled a gun, loaded a round and pointed it at a bar patron who had laughed at him for stumbling.

Michael Tracy put his face in his hands and started to cry when a detective told him what he had done, and he asked the officer whether he had shot anyone.

Luckily, he did not.

But Tracy, who said he knew from his concealed carry permit class that he shouldn't take his gun to a bar, or carry it when drunk, still faces several charges, including second-degree recklessly endangering safety, a felony, and three misdemeanors — carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a gun while intoxicated and disorderly conduct.

According to a criminal complaint:

Tracy and a friend started drinking Coors Lights at Tracy's apartment about 7 p.m. Saturday. About 11 p.m., his 20-year-old live-in girlfriend drove the pair to Joker's 5, a bar in West Bend. All three went inside and had several more drinks.

At some point, the girlfriend told police, she and Tracy returned outside to smoke, and he told her he had his .40-caliber Glock with him. She said she took it from him and put in her purse, even though she did not have a concealed carry permit.

Around closing time, the three left but returned to Joker's 5 to look for Tracy's cellphone and keys. The girlfriend went to the restroom. As he searched the bar, Tracy became belligerent. The bartender, and then a patron, known as "Diaper," told Tracy to leave.

Diaper, 36, told police that as Tracy was finally departing, he stumbled, Diaper laughed, and then Tracy said he would shoot him, pulled a gun, racked the slide to load a round and pointed it at Diaper. Diaper ran back into the bar.

The complaint doesn't specify when Tracy may have retrieved the gun from his girlfriend's purse.

As Tracy, his friend and girlfriend drove away, Tracy fired at least one round out the window of their truck, into the air, according to the complaint. Back at their apartment, the girlfriend was so upset she left for her brother's house. She told police she later got a call from Tracy, at about 4 a.m., saying he'd crashed his own car into the Milwaukee River outside of West Bend in Barton.

The girlfriend picked Tracy up and they went to her mother's home in the Fond du Lac County community of Eden, where deputies deputies arrested Tracy late Sunday morning, when his blood alcohol level still registered 0.107 on a breath test, above the 0.08 level at which drivers are considered impaired.

Tracy told police that all he remembered was drinking at his own apartment before waking up in Eden. He did not know where his gun was, but told police where he usually keeps it, and it was later recovered from a nightstand next to the bed at Tracy's apartment, along with several magazines and ammunition.

Inside Tracy's friend's pickup truck, which the girlfriend had driven to and from Joker's 5, police found another 15-round Glock magazine loaded with 11 rounds.

Tracy made an initial court appearance Monday and was released on $2,500 bail. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Dec. 7.