Guns and Pizza - watcha think?

More than 50 gun rights advocates protested police conduct during an incident at a city restaurant with some calling for the firing of several of the officers involved at Monday night's Manassas City Council meeting.

The public outcry comes two weeks after Springfield-resident Russ Troxel filed a complaint against the police department about an incident involving him and six friends who were openly carrying their weapons while dining at Tony's New York Pizza on Mathis Avenue on the evening of Jan. 13.

A second complaint was filed Friday by Fairfax resident Mark Anderson who states that among other things the officers overstepped their authority by "coercing" the owner of Tony's to kick them out after they had already been there for nearly an hour.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League Inc., asked at the meeting that three of the seven responding officers - Tina Pannell, Chad Hyland and Rickey Clodfelter - be reprimanded or fired.

Van Cleave said that as the supervisor at the scene, Pannell should have taken control of the situation and told the other officers that they were legally allowed to openly carry their weapons there.

"If the police can't do this right then we've got a big problem," he said.

The incident started with a 911 call from an unnamed man who reported that the men's guns were making him uncomfortable.

It was the initial antagonistic attitude of Hyland, who demanded IDs from the men even though they weren't committing a crime, and the officer's ignorance of the law that Troxel's and others said is unacceptable.

Troxel, who was among those who attended the meeting, said the officers also refused to accept paperwork documenting the state's open-carry law.

Police Chief John J. Skinner said he would like to comment publicly but can't because the complaints are part of an internal investigation.

The timeline for the investigation could be extended if new information or witnesses is revealed, he said, adding that he plans to discuss the new complaint with the investigator today.

The men say they were within their rights because Virginia law requires that weapons be carried in the open in places that serve alcohol.

And while carrying a concealed weapon requires a court-issued permit, no permit is required to carry a gun in the open.

The manager of Tony's has said that the men were asked to leave because of several complaints the restaurant received from regular customers.

In Anderson's complaint, he also says that one of the officers cursed at him "repeatedly" throughout the incident.

At least two of the officers refer to the men as "assclowns" and "retards" in intradepartmental messages and e-mails that were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Mike Stollenwerk, one of the founders of Opencarry.org.

In an e-mail Clodfelter sent five of the other officers the day after the incident, he copied the state code that prohibits patrons from carrying concealed weapons in any place that serves alcohol and concludes that they were legally allowed to carry their guns openly that night.

In the same e-mail, Clodfelter also wrote: "My guess is the over-compensating assclowns at Tony's were hyper-aware of all this, and that's why they started crying like little babies when their event got spoiled by the whole 'let's get the owner to tell them to get the f-- out' thing.

Troxel and the six other men are members of a forum on Opencarry.org.

Skinner said he would release the findings of the internal investigation when it is completed.