4 Restaurant Employees Shot to Death; Fired Worker Held

A former kitchen worker who had been fired was arrested in a shooting rampage at a family restaurant that left four employees dead, authorities said Wednesday.

A fifth employee survived despite being shot in the jaw, and managed to alert police.

Nathan Dunlap, 19, was being held for investigation of four counts of first-degree murder in the slayings Tuesday night at the Chuck E Cheese restaurant in this Denver suburb. The victims were shot in the head.

“It appears he may have held a grudge over his firing and went in and . . . shot the five employees,” said Mike Stiers, chief of the Aurora Police Investigative Division.

Authorities said Dunlap was fired about a week ago and recently got a job at a fast-food restaurant near Chuck E Cheese, which is also an entertainment center. The reason for his dismissal was not immediately known.

Investigators found a small-caliber semiautomatic handgun, but Stiers would not release other information about the weapon.

Killed were night manager Margaret Kohlberg, 50; Colleen O’Connor, 17; Sylvia Crowell, 20, and Benjamin Grant, 17. Bobby Stevens, 20, was in fair condition at Denver General Hospital. He escaped from the restaurant and ran to nearby apartments to call police.

The gunman entered the restaurant just after closing, when employees were cleaning up. He confronted and shot two workers, shot a third one in a hallway, shot and wounded Stevens in the kitchen, and shot Kohlberg in her office in the rear.

“This is just a tragic, tragic example of what can happen if something is not done about the level of violence existing with these kids today,” Stiers said.