Gas station clerk pulls gun on black man over soda top-off — and cops make him pay twice for spilled drink

A Memphis gas station clerk pulled a gun on a man over a soda — and police made the man pay for the drink a second time despite the attendant knocking it out of his hands.

Memphis' WREG reported that Tradarius Owens topped off his soda with a beverage from the station's slush machine — something he routinely did to keep his drinks cold — when the store's attendant, whose race is never specified, went off on him.

"I walked out to the pump and noticed that he shorted me on my gas," Owens told WREG. "So I walked back in the store, and that's when he called me all types of names. He said, 'Get your black a** out of here. You stole the slush."

Owens said the clerk swung at him and knocked the drink out of his hand, and when he moved to go speak to the manager, all hell broke loose.

"Before I could see the manager, he walked from behind the counter and put the gun to my head and said, 'Get your black a** out of my store. I will f****** kill you myself,'" he said. "Why was a gun put to my head? I was scared for my life."

Owens subsequently called police, but said they did not review security footage of the incident. They did, however, tell him that if he wanted to avoid jail, he'd need to pay a second time for the drink the clerk had knocked out of his hands.

Watch WREG's interview with Owens below: