A viral video of a dramatic and dangerous encounter from Tallahassee, Florida is making headlines across the country.
Last weekend, Isaiah Butterfield and his three friends - all students at Florida A&M University - were waiting in the parking garage of another friend's apartment building.
They had been invited there for a housewarming party, but while they were waiting a stranger began a bizarre confrontation that almost ended in disaster.
The man, identified as Don Crandall by ABC News, told the group they would not be allowed into the building, and locked the front door behind him.
"We were just sitting there confused, like why did he even say anything to us?" Butterfield said.
Later, Crandall returned to the lobby and confronted Butterfield's friends again.
This is when Butterfield began recording Crandall with his smartphone.
Warning: this video contains strong language.
"Find another elevator, you can't get in this one," Crandall told the men.
"Why not? Do you own the building?" someone asked.
"Because you don't belong in this building," Crandall told the men. "You ain't got a key for the building, you don't belong in the elevator."
A bystander who had stopped to stand up for the students showed Crandall his key, which is when the group noticed Crandall had pulled out a firearm.
"Sir, you bring out your gun. What's your purpose for that?" one of the men in Butterfield's party asked.
The student said that when Crandall drew a weapon, the encounter became "a whole different situation."
"We really think he was trying to provoke us to the point where it got violent so he could retaliate with the gun," Butterfield explained.
"I knew that if this dude even feels threatened, he's going to find any excuse to pull the trigger."
Thankfully, Butterfield's friend arrived in time to defuse the situation, and led the group upstairs.
But Butterfield shared his video on Twitter, saying that he is "sick of the discrimination."
"[N]ever thought I'd have a personal experience with racism like this, this man pulled a gun on us because we were walking up to my friends apartment [without] a key," he wrote.
The disturbing video quickly went viral, and had been viewed more than 472,000 times by Thursday.
In a surprising twist, the apartment complex where the video was filmed, Stadium Centre, says Crandall is not even a resident.
They also add that firearms are strictly prohibited inside the building.
The Tallahassee Police Department confirmed to ABC News that Crandall was being investigated for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill.
A local hotel, Baymont By Wyndham, also revealed Crandall had been fired following an online movement asking for him to lose his job.
On Instagram, the Baymont Tallahassee wrote that Crandall "does not represent the values of our company and how others should be treated."
[H/T: ABC News]