Petey Pablo Says Arrest Was a Mistake

Petey Pablo ran into some legal trouble this past weekend after he was arrested at North Carolina's Raleigh Durham Airport for carrying a Smith & Wesson pistol in his carry-on luggage. Pablo was arrested with the handgun on Saturday, Sept. 11, nine years after the terrorist attacks on America. But after posting $50,000 bond, Pablo, born Moses Barrett III, claims that the gun wasn't actually his, nor that it was a publicity stunt to promote his new music. Pablo says he was simply protecting a friend from doing something stupid.

The convicted felon, who was on his way to the MTV Video Music Awards, had prior learned that his friend wasn't in his right mind and stashed the gun in his luggage to hide it from him.

"It looks terrible," said Pablo in an interview with K97.5's Hip Hop NC show. "A lot of people were disappointed. Understand, the situation ... Anybody that knows me, knows that I ain't gonna do nothin' stupid. ... At the same time, I apologize to anybody that I may have let down. Understand, I did something that I thought was right at the time."

Pablo was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a stolen firearm. He's scheduled to go before a judge at Wake County Court on October 4.