Bremerton resident Daniel Darnell Williams, 26, was arrested Sunday at the Old Town Bistro in Silverdale for unlawful possession of a firearm.

Williams was also booked for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and for having a weapon on premises where liquor is being sold.

Deputy Heather Wright was working foot patrol at Whaling Days when she encountered two security people and a waitress in front of the NW Byron Street bar at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday. The waitress, Jessica Smitley, told Deputy Wright that she felt a gun when she placed her hand on Williams’ lower back near his waistline.

Williams told Smitley it was a cell phone, which he displayed, and not a gun. But Smitley said that she again felt for and found the gun. Deputy Wright eventually escorted Williams outside and searched him for weapons, but found none.

Williams insisted that he never had a gun and that he kept his cellphone in his back pocket.

Bar security, meanwhile, recovered a firearm near a garbage can in the outside dance area of the bar. The pistol, a black High Point Firearms model JHP .45 ACP, was in a small black synthetic Blackhawk size #6 fabric holster designed for inside the waistband carry, according to police.

“He insisted if he had thrown the gun down that someone would have seen him and he insisted he never had a gun and did not have one concealed in his waistband tonight while inside the bar,” Deputy Wright wrote in her report. “I asked Daniel if he had a concealed weapons permit and he said that he didn’t.”

Smitley, though, insisted she had felt a gun and Williams was arrested and transported to the Kitsap County Jail.