Deputies say a St. Pete Beach hotel guest used a handgun to shoot the lock on his room door because he had locked himself out.

  • Deputies: Man shoots hotel door because he got locked out
  • Incident occurred at the Beachcomber Hotel on St. Pete Beach

The incident occurred at the Beachcomber Hotel, located at 6200 Gulf Boulevard in St. Pete Beach, at approximately 7:58 a.m. on Thursday.

According to deputies, when they arrived at the hotel they located the suspect, 35-year-old Charles Richardson, of Dunbar, West Virginia, sitting in the lobby unarmed.

Deputies determined that Richardson, who was a guest at the hotel, used a handgun to shoot the lock on his hotel room door because he had locked himself out of his room.

Deputies said Richardson then proceeded to shoot a glass window at the hotel for no apparent reason.

No one was injured at the hotel as a result of the shooting. Deputies recovered the handgun near Richardson's hotel room.

Richardson was arrested and transported to the Pinellas County Jail without incident. He was charged with two felony counts of shooting a deadly missile into/at/within an occupied building.