top-stories, canberra courts, gungahin mcdonald's, gun in gungahlin

A man threatened a member of the public with a replica gun in a McDonald's, saying "Don't you know who I am?", police allege. Joshua Asfour, 24, faced court on Saturday after police allegedly found his backpack containing 117 grams of MDMA, 30 grams of cocaine and a replica gun. Documents tendered to the court alleged Mr Asfour was at McDonald's Gungahlin at 10.45am on Good Friday when he threatened a member of the public with a black handled, silver barreled replica gun. He allegedly said to the man, "Don't you know who I am?". To draw attention to what was happening, the man yelled, "Why are you pulling a gun out, there's no need for this". Mr Asfour then left McDonald's. The man waited for his food and then also left, but was allegedly confronted by Mr Asfour in the car park. Police allege Mr Asfour made an attempt to punch the man, but members of the public restrained him. The man went home and called police. Police attended and "saturated" the area. Mr Asfour is alleged to have run at the sound of sirens, but police apprehended him in a carpark near Big W. Police allege that Mr Asfour hid the backpack he was seen carrying under a car in the carpark, but a member of the public saw this and told police. Police documents said a search of the bag revealed it contained a replica gun, drugs and drug paraphernalia. A test of the substances found the pills to be either ecstasy or MDMA, and the white powder to be cocaine. The bag also contained a set of scales, lots of empty clip seal bags, blister packs labeled oxycontin, a spiral ledger with names and money owing, 3500 Indonesian Rupiah and about $1500. Mr Asfour declined to answer police questions when he was taken to the station. On Saturday, the court heard the man ran a tiling business which would be unable to operate if he was in custody. The court heard the man contested some of what police have alleged. The prosecutor said the man appeared to be running a drug trafficking business and his behaviour at McDonald's was "brazen, arrogant and out of control". Magistrate Louise Taylor said the police allegations showed a concerning set of circumstances. She said while his criminal history was not significant, he had previously been convicted of driving while disqualified which showed a willingness to disobey court orders. The magistrate denied Mr Asfour bail. He will return to court on May 10.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/tiBeXLQSZGBbnMmY9AKBcc/3d56bda3-f040-439e-8259-404e72701d1c.jpg/r5_0_1959_1104_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg