Kernersville pastor arrested after police find weapons, body armor and fentanyl in his Las Vegas Hotel room (2024)

The Rev. David Tildon McGee, the pastor of a Kernersville church, faces charges after Las Vegas police found an assault rifle, body armor and fentanyl in his hotel room last month, court records show.

McGee, 61, the senior pastor of The Bridge Fellowship, is charged with two counts of possession of fentanyl, two counts of transporting fentanyl and possession of a firearm during the commission of a drug- related charge, according to an arrest report by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

McGee was arrested August 20 by police after officers found fentanyl and guns, including an AR-15 rifle with a scope, in his Las Vegas hotel room.

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid used to treat severe pain related to surgery or complex pain conditions, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Fentanyl kills about 70,000 U.S. residents every year, federal authorities say.

McGee couldn’t be reached this week for comment.

Winston-Salem Journal obtained McGee’s arrest report and related court documents from KLAS-TV in Las Vegas.

Hotel staff at Strat Hotel, Casino and Tower, 2000 S. Las Vegas Blvd., first saw McGee with a gun on Aug. 17, when he brought a shotgun to his hotel room. The hotel’s staff told him wasn’t allowed to have guns in his room and asked him to remove it.

At 9:40 Aug. 20, McGee called hotel security and said he had traveled from North Carolina to Las Vegas and wanted to make a claim for missing property, the report said.

The security officer then asked McGee if he had any weapons, and McGee replied, “Yes, I have a gun in my guitar case,” according to the report.

Security staffers called 911, saying they a “had a suspicion of possible shooter event as McGee’s room was at a higher elevation overlooking the Las Vegas Strip corridor,” the report said.

The security officer then detained McGee for violating the hotel’s gun policy, the report said.

At about 1:50 p.m. Aug. 20. police and counter terrorism detectives went to the hotel, the police report says.

Las Vegas hotels have remained on high alert since Oct. 1, 2017, when a gunman fired from a hotel window into an outdoor country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 people and wounding more than 850 others.

When guns are found in hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip, police are typically called.

When police officers arrived at the Strat, McGee told them that he had flown to the city on private jet from North Carolina to find his daughter, Ashley McGee, the report says. McGee indicated that his daughter wasn’t doing well and is mentally ill because of substance abuse.

His daughter’s ex-boyfriend told McGee that Ashley McGee was last seen near the Strat hotel in Las Vegas, the report said. McGee told police that he had his handgun and shotgun in his hotel room for his safety, and there were more guns in his room.

McGee then allowed the officers to search his hotel room, and an investigator saw multiple knives, and the AR-15 rifle in a guitar case and drugs in a safe, the report said.

The investigator then asked McGee for permission to search the safe “to find any manifestos that would be related” to the police investigation of possible terrorist activity, according to the report.

McGee told the investigator that there were blue fentanyl pills and powder inside the safe, the report said.

McGee reluctantly allowed the investigator to search the safe, and the officer found the fentanyl pills and powder inside a prescription bottle, the report said. McGee told the investigator that he brought the fentanyl from North Carolina, and he paid $1,000 for it.

McGee said he used fentanyl and intended to provide fentanyl to his daughter when he found her, the report said.

Investigators also found a digital scale, two plastic baggies containing marijuana, marijuana brownies and cookies, 1.06 ounces of fentanyl pills and power inside the safe, and the AR-15 rifle, the report said.

Investigators also found two handguns, body armor with plates and a cellphone, the report said.

McGee was released from custody and is scheduled to appear Dec. 19 in Las Vegas Justice Court, according to a news report.

McGee, a rock musician and songwriter, started The Bridge Fellowship in October 2002 as the Chapel of the Triad at 365 W. Bodenhamer St. in Kernersville.

Eight months later, McGee and other church leaders changed the church’s name to The Bridge, and the church moved to the former Dudley Products campus in Kernersville, according to the church’s website.

The Bridge Fellowship is temporarily closed, its website says. The church sold the Dudley property in 2023.