Charlotte Taco Bell worker shot by customer upset over wrong change. Irate customer identified as local North Carolina man, Doll McLendon. Employee remains in critical condition.
A fast food worker at a Charlotte, North Carolina drive thru is in critical condition after being shot by a customer ‘several times’ after believing that they had been given the wrong change on Saturday night.
Officers with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said the shooting happened just before 9:30 p.m. at a Taco Bell restaurant on Albemarle Road.
Doll McLendon, 67 is alleged to have stormed into the fast food franchise after believing that the employee had short changed him and opening gunfire, according to police.
‘Learn to take a deep breath…’
The suspect according to witnesses then left the store and started shooting into the restaurant from outside it, before finally leaving the Taco Bell outlet.
Investigators stated that a worker, had been shot multiple times and was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The victim was identified as a 54-year-old man.
CMPD officers were able to gather information for a vehicle description based on witness statements and restaurant footage. They later found what they believed to be McLendon’s vehicle outside a nearby apartment complex. After getting warrants for his arrest, they arrested him outside his home abc11 reported.
In a news conference Monday, police said people should be slow to respond with violence in situation like these.
‘If you can take the time to take a deep breath, take a step back, regardless of what it is, and have a genuine conversation with somebody, as opposed to being in your feelings or being upset with whatever you have going on,’ CMPD Maj. Torri Tellis said.
McLendon has been charged with attempted murder and discharging a weapon in occupied property in connection with the case.
‘Small things like not getting the right change or not getting the right food is not worth killing or shooting someone for sure,’ customer Jazmyn Jackson told WSOC-TV.
