Kernersville Pastor Arrested on Drug, Gun Charges

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

McGee was arrested by police on August 20 after officers found fentanyl and firearms, 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 Americans each year, according to federal authorities.

McGee could not be reached for comment this week.

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

Staff at the Strat Hotel, Casino and Tower, located at 2000 S. Las Vegas Blvd., first saw McGee with a gun on Aug. 17, when he brought a shotgun into his hotel room. Hotel staff told him he was not allowed to have firearms in his room and asked him to remove it.

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

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

Security officers called 911, saying they “suspected a possible shooter incident because McGee’s room was at a higher elevation overlooking the Las Vegas Strip corridor,” the report said.

The security guard then arrested McGee for violating the hotel’s firearms policy, the report said.

On August 20, at around 1:50 p.m., police and counterterrorism detectives went to the hotel, the police report said.

Las Vegas hotels have been on high alert since Oct. 1, 2017, when a gunman opened fire from a hotel window at 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, the police are usually called.

When officers arrived at the Strat, McGee told them he had flown in a private jet from North Carolina to be reunited with his daughter, Ashley McGee, the report said. McGee said his daughter was not doing well and was suffering from mental illness due to her drug addiction.

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 he had his handgun and shotgun in his hotel room for safety, and that there were other weapons in his room.

McGee then allowed officers to search his hotel room, and an investigator saw several knives, 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 “for manifests that would be related” to the police investigation into possible terrorist activity, the report said.

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

McGee reluctantly allowed the investigator to search the safe, and the agent found the fentanyl pills and powder in a medication bottle, the report said. McGee told the investigator he had brought the fentanyl from North Carolina and paid $1,000 for it.

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

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

Investigators also found two handguns, a bulletproof vest with plates and a cellphone, the report said.

McGee was released and is scheduled to appear in court in Las Vegas on Dec. 19, according to a report.

McGee, a rock musician and songwriter, founded The Bridge Fellowship in October 2002 as 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.