‘Trying to intimidate’: Gallatin councilman accused of tapping gun in county commission meeting

GALLATIN, Tenn. (WKRN) — A member of the Gallatin City Council is accused of trying to intimidate people with his concealed firearm during a Sumner County Commission meeting last month.

Councilman Shawn Fennel, former Councilman Jimmy Overton, and other community members said that Councilman Pascal Jouvence patted his gun while looking at them, in a show of intimidation.

This comes just a few months after Jouvence was accused of bullying a former councilwoman, who resigned due to his alleged actions.

“He reached on the side of his gun, he was wearing a gun, he patted on his gun like he was trying to intimidate all of us,” Overton told News 2 on Tuesday, Sept. 10.

This incident happened on Aug. 26, when officials were meeting to appoint Eric Craddock as Sumner County’s interim sheriff.

Video surveillance from the Sumner County Administration Building shows Jouvence speaking with people, including Fennel, in the parking lot. The conversation allegedly surrounded Jouvence’s social media posts.

Later, inside the commission chambers, Jouvence is seen on surveillance footage patting his concealed gun while looking at Fennel, Overton, and others.

“He does everything he can to try and intimidate, from being on social media, to being in front of people. Anything he can do,” Overton said. “They need to prosecute him over it because he’s trying to intimidate people, and if I tried to do it or anyone else tried to do it, we’d be in jail.”

Overton, who served on Gallatin City Council for nearly two decades, said Jouvence loves to stir the pot and then play the victim. He blamed the councilman for inciting recent problems along the board.

“Gallatin is a wonderful, wonderful place to live, and [Jouvence] just wants to continue, continue to disrupt it and do everything he can to destroy our city,” Overton proclaimed.

On the flip side, Jouvence admitted to tapping his gun. However, he said the action was not meant in a threatening manner, adding that Fennell tried to get him in trouble with deputies for having the gun inside the chambers. Jouvence told News 2 authorities cleared him to have a gun because he had a permit, so the gesture was meant to make a point.

“I turn around and pat my gun on my side, kind of telling them, ‘Hey, you tried to take my gun away, I still have it,'” Jouvence explained. “It’s my right to have a gun, they tried to take it out of me, and I came back and said, ‘Yeah, I still have my gun. You failed!'”

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While Overton and others would like to see Jouvence charged with a crime, the councilman believes this is just the same story repeating itself.

“They lied to the police, tried to make something out of nothing, and that’s where Gallatin is going: if you don’t bend the knee and kiss the ring, they’re going to try everything they can to get you,” Jouvence said.

A police report was filed on the incident, but the Gallatin Police Department did not share additional information with News 2 about the state of its investigation on Tuesday.

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