Anthony Rodriguez Wisconsin restaurant worker survives being shot in face over missing hamburger at Wauwatosa George Webb location. Bryanna and Breanta Johnson face attempted homicide.
‘I never expected to get shot being a server….’
A Wisconsin fast food restaurant worker has spoken about his ‘miracle recovery’ after being being shot in the face by a pair of customers angry that their $3 hamburger was missing from their order.
Anthony Rodriguez, 26, a father-of-one, miraculously survived the January 30 shooting, which left his spine fractured and a portion of the bullet still lodged in his throat.
Rodriguez was the only server working at the popular Wisconsin chain restaurant the night of the attack, which took place shortly after 12 a.m.
Twin sisters Bryanna and Breanta Johnson, both 20, were allegedly ‘impatient and rude’ while waiting for their order and then became angry when a hamburger was missing, prompting one of them to walk outside and return with a gun. The two proceeded to attack Rodriguez and one of them shot him in the face while he was down, including stomping on his face, police said.
‘I thought my life was over…’
As the customers fled, Rodriguez recalls thinking ‘his life was over.’
‘I do remember just laying on the ground and just bleeding out,’ Rodriguez, wearing a neck brace to support his fractured spine, told WISN-TV of the late-night attack at a Wauwatosa George Webb location, where he worked as a server.
‘I was in so much shock. I don’t really remember being in much pain, but I remember kind of internally freaking out and being very scared and just telling myself, “Wow, I’m probably gonna die here.”‘
When police arrived on the scene, they found Rodriguez in critical condition with ‘a gunshot wound to the right side of his face,’ per the complaint.
‘The bullet went through my upper lip and took out my upper teeth and cracked my bottom teeth, so those will have to be replaced,’ Rodriguez said two weeks after the attack, donning a neck brace to stabilize a part of his spine fractured by the bullet.
‘There’s still big fragments in my throat from the bullet,’ said the George Webb staffer, who has not yet returned to work and has had friends start a GoFundMe to help cover hospital costs and help the single dad with his three-year-old son.
‘I never expected to get shot being a server,’ Rodriguez said.
‘I hope they get the judgment that they deserve…’
‘It’s amazing I’m able to walk. It’s amazing I’m able to speak.’
The twin sisters were tracked down and arrested by Wisconsin police, and now face attempted homicide charges. The are being held in jail on $100,000 bail, according to police records.
If convicted, both of the sisters could face up to 65 years in prison, police say, as both took part in the attack.
Rodriguez recalled how, while bleeding out on the eatery’s floor, he had thought he would never see his son again.
‘Just disappointment that it had to come to this and disappointment that I was almost taken away from my family,’ Rodriguez told WISN.
Of his attackers, he says, ‘I hope they get the judgment that they deserve because it was brutal what they did.’
Rodriguez will have a ‘long and arduous recovery,’ according to his GoFundMe, which to date has raised $50,465 of a $65,000 goal.
