Two teenagers were injured early Wednesday when a dispute with an employee at a Taco Bell in South Fulton escalated to gunfire, police said.
The victims, both 16-year-old boys, were taken to a hospital with serious injuries after being shot outside the restaurant in the 900 block of Camp Fulton Way. According to South Fulton police, investigators have obtained arrest warrants for 17-year-old Taco Bell employee Marquis Jordan on charges that include aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and reckless conduct.
Jordan remained at large Wednesday night. Police said he should be considered armed and dangerous and asked anyone with information on his whereabouts to call 911.
Shortly after midnight, Jalen Jackson said a teenager wearing a Taco Bell uniform came outside the restaurant with a rifle and started shooting. He and his fiancée were parked and talking to a manager about problems with their order when the bullets started to fly, he said.
“By the time the manager even got the last few words out, the dude was coming out the door with an assault rifle,” Jackson told reporters from the scene Wednesday.
Jackson said he and his fiancée tried to make themselves small inside their car. It wasn’t immediately clear to him where the shots were coming from, or if he was being targeted. The hood of his car was sprayed with bullets.
“After it paused just for a little bit and the door came open, I was able to push my fiancée on the ground and climbed on top of her and just laid there,” Jackson said. “Shots sprung out again.”
Jackson said as many as 40 shots were fired, littering the parking lot and shattering glass windows at the front of the restaurant. The manager and another employee eventually ushered the couple inside, where Jackson said they hid in a bathroom and waited for police to arrive.
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
He was stuck at the restaurant for hours overnight waiting on a tow truck.
“All of this because we came to try to get that new little Mexican pizza that just came back out,” he said.
South Fulton police spokesman Lt. Jubal Rogers said it appears Jordan and the two 16-year-olds were involved in a verbal argument before the shooting. It was not clear what they argued over.
The two victims were being treated at Grady Memorial Hospital, and their conditions were not released.
Hours later and about 200 yards down the street, police opened a separate investigation into a shooting at a 24-hour McDonald’s on Fulton Industrial Boulevard.
According to Rogers, a customer got into an argument with an employee and fired a weapon through the drive-thru window around 3:15 a.m., shattering several panes of glass. No one was injured in the McDonald’s shooting, which did not appear to be related to the Taco Bell incident, Rogers said.
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Credit: John Spink / John.Spink@ajc.com
Both shootings remain under investigation.
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