A deputy assistant secretary of the Navy is under investigation after a video allegedly showed him threatening a group of three young men with a gun.
The man arguing with the group came out of a home that is owned by Karnig Ohannessian, deputy secretary of the Navy for the environment. Ohannessian is currently under both criminal investigation and an internal Navy review.
One of the young men said they were at a barbecue in Burke, Va., when the incident occurred on June 11. The incident began when Ohannessian first yelled at them for being noisy and parking on the street outside his house.
Ohannessian attacked the group, the men said, who argued back. Ohannessian then went inside and got a handgun. Then one of the men pulled out his phone to record it.
Ohannessian accused the three men of being drunk and to leave the area as one woman, believed to be his wife, tried to calm him down.
In the video, first posted by WUSA-9 in Washington, D.C., Ohannessian is heard shouting “Get in the car!” and saying “I can shoot the [expletive] out of you guys right now!”
One of the men involved filed a complaint against Ohannessian a few days later. Fairfax County Police investigated the incident and brought him into custody.
According to a spokesperson with Fairfax Police, after Ohannessian appeared before a magistrate judge, an arrest warrant was not issued and he was released with no charges filed. Ohannessian’s involvement in the incident has not been confirmed.
Police intend to present additional evidence to the Office of the Commonwealth Attorney Thursday, according to the spokesperson.
“We were made aware of the incident and the video,” Rear Adm. Dawn Cutler, a Navy spokeswoman, said in a statement to the Washington Post. “Mr. Ohannessian’s supervisor is taking the appropriate action, to include working to understand the full details of what occurred. I’d refer you to local authorities for questions about the actual incident.”
Ohannessian, who was selected as the deputy secretary of the Navy for the environment in January, is the recipient of two Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Awards.
