Police: Man gets kicked out of bar, returns with an AR-15

Arguments in bars are not uncommon, but one involving an AR-15 assault-style rifle has landed a Deerfield Beach man behind bars.

Henry Estuardo Soto-Cardona, 24, was having a few drinks at the Porthole Pub at 501 E. Sample Road in Pompano Beach about 1 a.m. Feb. 17 when he was escorted outside because of his belligerent behavior toward other customers, according to an arrest report.

Soto-Cardona tried several times to re-enter the bar but a manager repeatedly blocked him. Soto-Cardona said he would return with something for the manager and then drove off in a Honda CRV, the report stated.

He returned minutes later and parked at the front door of the pub. One of three employees outside approached the SUV. Soto-Cardona grabbed the barrel of the rifle that was in the front passenger seat and said, “this is what I do to people who touch me,” detectives said.

“He threatened an employee with an AR-15 after being removed from the establishment,” said Broward assistant state attorney Eric Linder at Soto-Cardona’s first court appearance March 30.

“There were other people present that were additionally put in harm’s way,” he added.

Records show Soto-Cardona had been arrested on suspicion of DUI on March 20 after he allegedly rearended a car stopped at a railroad crossing in Deerfield Beach.

Soto-Cardona is also accused of firing a weapon several times outside his home in an unrelated case.

He was charged March 29 with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon/firearm and was being held in the Broward County Jail without bond for violating probation on his previous arrests, records show.

BROWARD SHERIFF’S OFFICE An argument at the Porthole Pub in Pompano Beach got out of hand when Henry Estuardo Soto-Cardona, 24, threatened an employee with an AR-15 rifle, the Broward Sheriff ’s Office said.