Omaha State Bank president suspended after bringing gun into work and pointing laser sight at collea

Bank president suspended after bringing gun into work and pointing laser sight at colleague claims he was 'just showing off his new pistol'

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Bank employees might worry that a man will burst in waving a 9mm pistol at work someday, but they probably don't expect it to be the boss.

But that's just what bank president Michael Dahir did, though he and an employee disagree on exactly what the circumstances were.

Dahir is on administrative leave as both Omaha police and the bank board of directors investigate his behavior.

Dahir

Dumb: Bank president Michael Dahir admits he brought his new pistol to work, but said it was just because he wanted to show off

Bank policies prohibit employees from carrying firearms in the building.

The incident was reported to police by Karen Cenovic, 51, a vice president and lending officer at the bank.

In her report she told police she felt threatened though Dahir claimed he only wanted to show her his new firearm.

Cenovic claimed her report was not intended as a 'formal complaint.'

According to Cenovic's report, she and Dahir had been arguing on the day he brought his gun to work.

It wasn't until the bank closed that she saw a laser dot gliding from her forhead to her chest to her computer.

She looked up to see Dahir pointing a gun at her.

She later told poilce that he laughed and showed her the gun wasn't loaded and told her he was showing off his new weapon.

While Dahir may have been chuckling, Cenovic was terrified.

Someone called 911 and reported Dahir to the police, but Cenovic said it wasn't her.

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Cenovic didn't report any of the incident to law enforcement, and everything recounted in the police report was gathered from a more thorough telling she gave to the bank's board later that night.

She noted Dahir had left her a voice message apologizing for his behavior and making her uncomfortable.

She filed a report at Central Police Headquarters that Saturday, telling the officers she feared retaliation at the bank.

'The Bank has taken responsibility to investigate the matter, and I am satisfied they are handling it well,' she told the The World-Herald.

But Dahir claimed it was all in good fun and that he just wanted to show her his new gun.

In Dahir's version, he ordered a new gun and had gone to the Guns Unlimited store to pay for it at 5 p.m.

He was planning to show it to another employee when he got bank to the bank but that co-worker had already left for a Creighton University basketball game.

He showed the gun to two administrative assistants before going to Cenovic's office.

Once there he pointed the laser dot on the wall next to her with her back to him, and that he never aimed it at her.

She also saw a 'friendly face' when she turned to face him.

'There was not a weapon ever brandished in any kind of threatening way, and everybody knew it,' Dahir said, calling Cenovic's report 'sensationalized. It doesn't tell anybody anything. It's just gossip.'

'It was a very jovial, innocuous, unthreatening atmosphere' Dahir added. 'I wasn't angry at all.'

Kleine

Investigating: Prosecutor Don Kleine is still trying to determine whether Dahir's behavior warrants a charge

Police have yet to decide whether his 'jovial' actions warrant a criminal charge.

In support of Dahir's version,

a security video without audio shows Cenovic and Dahir talking and laughing in a hallway shortly before 7 p.m. on the day in question.

However cameras are not pointed at Cenovic's office and do not show Dahir with the gun.

Also two administrative assistants, Sharon Stacy and Alison Ehle, said Dahir showed them the gun and its laser pointer and that neither felt threatened.

Stacy left before Dahir showed the weapon to Cenovic, but Elhe said she witnessed the bank president go into the office.

'I heard her laugh and say, 'No, no, no,' as though everything was OK,' Ehle said. 'There was no indication that something serious had happened. Whatever it was, she just kind of laughed it off and didn't seem upset at all.'

Dahir then returned to his own office, gun in hand.

The police arrived shortly after.

None of the bankers at the scene admit to making the 911 call.

Dahir now knows bringing a gun to the office was poor judgement but that he shouldn't lose his job over it, said his attorney David Domina.

'He realizes this may be a lapse in judgment,' Domina said. 'He has something new and took it into the bank and showed it, and he wishes he would have never bought it and had left it in the car if he had. He regrets that anybody might have gotten upset or frightened, and he doesn't really think that happened.

'He has made it clear to anybody and everybody that he is willing to or would have immediately (apologized) if he had seen any indication from her that evening that she had been upset. He would have immediately made an amend and tried to make sure she wasn't offended or misunderstood him.'

He also claims Convic's report makes it sound as if he pointed the gun at her because of their argument.

'There were no unpleasant words,' Domina said. 'There was a question raised by him about a vote she cast on a loan where her assessment of the loan quality was different from the other persons in the meeting.'

A bank spokesperson said the board has requested Dahir stay away from the bank 'while it sorts things out, and it's still in that process.'”

Bank Chairman David Scott did not respond to interview requests.

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