Former School District 49 board member Ivy Liu is facing felony charges after allegedly pointing a handgun at a tenant and refusing to let him leave a residence.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Gazette, Liu called police to a residence she owned in the area of Peterson Road and Stetson Hills Boulevard around 12:10 p.m. Saturday, reporting a 25-year-old male was trespassing in the home.

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At the same time, the man called police to report he was being held by Liu at the residence at gunpoint, the affidavit said.

The man later told officers that he had paid his rent and was “good up until” Sept. 30, the day of the incident, but that he and Liu were disputing a $100 difference, documents said. The man said that when he arrived at the home to remove his belongings, the front door was locked so he entered through the back door.

While packing his things upstairs, he reportedly heard Liu enter the home and yell his name. When he exited the room at the top of the stairs, he saw Liu pointing a handgun at him, the affidavit said.

The man told police he had feared for his life, “especially” because if she had even fired the gun accidentally, she could have hit and killed him.

A hollow-point round was later found in the chamber of the gun, which also contained a magazine with 10 bullets, police said.

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According to a recording of the man’s 911 call, he told dispatchers that he was “trying to get out” of the house but that Liu was “flashing her gun around” and would not let him move his belongings out of the home.

“She won’t let me out the front door, and I’m not really gonna attempt to get out …  with her standing in front of it with a gun,” the man told dispatchers, according to the affidavit.

When the man said Liu’s gun was in her hand, she could reportedly be heard in the background of his call saying that he was lying, and that the firearm was in her purse. The man confirmed the gun was then in her purse but that she had been previously pointing it at him.

In Liu’s call, she reported that “a young man” who was not allowed in the home had entered it “uninvited” before clarifying that the man “owed her rent” and was trying to leave without paying.

When dispatchers asked if she was in danger, Liu said no.

Liu later told police she had been “giving (the victim) breaks because he was young” but that she believed the man had a gambling issue and was running low on money and had been unable to pay rent in full, the affidavit said. Liu said she and the man agreed to meet at the home at 1 p.m. that day – the calls for service came in around 12:10 p.m. -so that he could move out after paying the rest of the rent amount.

Liu then said she saw the man attempting to enter the home on a doorbell camera and begin to collect his things, the document said. She told police she smelled alcohol when she arrived at the home and that she saw the tenant “put his hand in his pocket.”

This caused her to draw her handgun and hold it at her side pointing downward, she said, because she knew the tenant owned “guns and rifles” and feared he may be reaching for a gun, the affidavit said.

In the affidavit, a police officer said the odor of an “unknown alcoholic beverage” could be detected from the man, but that “his eyes were not glossy, his speech was not slurred, and he displayed no other signs of intoxication.”

Police then told Liu she would have to evict the man if he was unwilling to leave, but that unless she went through an official eviction process, the man would have standing to remain until evicted.

Liu was arrested and charged with felony menacing with a weapon, second-degree criminal tampering and false imprisonment. 

She posted a $1,000 bond, online court records show, and her first appearance hearing in district court is scheduled for Oct. 12.

Liu, who vacated her seat on the school board before the end of her term in November, was embroiled in conflict on the board leading up to her departure that ended with the 4th Judicial District Court ruling to disqualify her for reelection due to her no longer living within the district she would represent.

Before the reelection matter, some called for Liu’s resignation after she quoted Adolf Hitler in a social media post, which she said was an effort to urge people not to let history repeat itself.

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