LITTLE ROCK, Ark — Little Rock Mayor candidate Steve Landers has admitted to leaving a loaded gun inside the restroom of a local restaurant.
The weapon was reportedly left inside the restroom of The Root Cafe in Little Rock, with an initial unnamed incident report being filed by the restaurant on May 27.
Days after an Arkansas Times report regarding the gun, Landers spoke to us about the incident at mayoral candidate forum Thursday.
Landers, who is a concealed carry license holder, said he feels that he needs protection wherever he goes out in the city. He cited another separate incident where a woman allegedly threatened one of his staffers as a reason to carry his gun.
"I owned the fact that I left my gun there," Landers told us, "because when I went to the restroom, I take my gun out and put it on the sink — I do it every time."
He said he called The Root around five minutes after he realized he left the gun. A person with the restaurant told him the gun wasn't there any longer, but it was there previously.
"It was my bad, I owned it," he said.
All three candidates spoke at the forum, which focused on several local issues including the recent crime in Little Rock as well as attracting new residents and businesses to the city.
Landers has said in the past that if he's elected that he will run the city like a business, with the cornerstone of his campaign being largely based on curbing crime in the city.
The other two focal points of his campaign consists of "unifying the city" and "not raising taxes."
Steve Landers is running for Little Rock Mayor against current Mayor Frank Scott Jr. and Greg Henderson.