Employee Opens Fire in Tulsa Restaurant, Wounding 6 People

A fast-food restaurant employee, apparently angry that a manager asked him to start work early, opened fire Tuesday, wounding the boss and five other people, authorities said.

Marcus Muriel Thompson, 26, who fired about a dozen shots, walked out of Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers as the first police cruisers arrived and surrendered.

“We were at a back table and didn’t get to get out,” said high school student Jenny Edwards. “He started shooting all my friends. And then he came to me and held the gun right in my face. And he said, ‘You better be awful lucky.’ ”

The gunman, who had a .380-caliber handgun, asked Edwards if she believed in God. “I said yes. He said, ‘The clip is out,’ ” she told radio station KVOO. “And then he started running toward the front.”

Three of Edwards’ fellow students at East Central High School were among the wounded.

Thompson went to the restaurant before his shift was to begin and was asked to start working immediately because of the lunch-hour rush, Sgt. Steve Emmons said.

“He had some kind of disagreement with the manager first, in the office area,” Emmons said. “Then he came out in the seating area and had everybody lie down. He hesitated a bit, then just started firing.”

Co-worker Krystal Shaw, who was not in the restaurant during the shooting, said Thompson argued frequently with one shift manager, but it was not clear whether that manager was among those wounded.

Eddie Kimbrough, another manager at the restaurant, said he was not aware of any problems between the 20 employees and management.

“I’m the one who makes out the schedules and the one who makes out the raises and stuff like that,” he said. “We didn’t have any problems.”

But a police spokeswoman added: “What we’re hearing is he (Thompson) came in early and was expecting a pay raise and didn’t get it.”

One of the wounded was shot five times in the stomach and was in listed in stable condition. Another victim was in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the head, three people were in fair condition, and one person was treated at a hospital and released.