Former campground worker charged after pulling gun on black couple in Mississippi

STARKVILLE, Miss. - A former Mississippi campground worker, who was fired last month after video allegedly showed her pulling a gun on an African American couple for not having a reservation, was arrested this week, authorities said.

Ruby Nell Howell, 70, turned herself in and was released on a $500 bond, according to the Oktibbeha County Sheriff's Department.

Howell, a resident of Starkville, faces a misdemeanor charge of threatening exhibition of a weapon. She is scheduled to appear at Oktibbeha County Justice Court for a hearing on June 25.

Widely shared video of the confrontation, posted May 26 on Facebook, showed a woman in a “Kampgrounds of America” shirt holding a gun as she tells the couple to leave because they didn't have a reservation.

The video was posted by fellow Mississippi resident Jessica Richardson who wrote that she and her husband decided to find a lake and have a picnic with their dog, adding that “racism is alive and well.”

“We found a lake located in Starkville, MS and decided to visit. Not five mins later a truck pulls up and a white lady screams at us, she then jumps out of her truck with a gun,” Richardson wrote, “And proceeded to point it at the 3 of us, simply because we didn't make reservations.”

Richardson said that after they left, her husband stopped by the campground office and spoke to the armed woman's husband. Richardson said the woman's husband was also a property manager.

“Her husband tells my husband that reservations aren't needed for the lake,” Richardson added in the post.

Kampgrounds of America spokesman Mike Gast later said that the woman had been fired.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Gast said KOA "does not condone the use of a firearm in any manner" on its properties or franchises.

This story was reported from Los Angeles. The Associated Press contributed.