Employee Opens Fire in Tulsa Restaurant, Wounding 6 People

A fast-food restaurant employee whose Valentine’s Day advances reportedly had been rebuffed opened fire Tuesday, wounding the woman, his boss and four other people during the lunch-hour rush.

Marcus Muriel Thompson, 26, went to Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers before his shift was to begin Tuesday and got angry when he was asked to start working immediately, Police Sgt. Steve Emmons said.

After the disagreement with the manager in the office, Thompson “came out in the seating area and had everybody lie down. He hesitated a bit, then just started firing,” Emmons said.

He fired 10 to 12 shots, then walked out of the restaurant as the first police cruisers arrived and surrendered, Emmons said.

“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, armed with a .380-caliber handgun, asked her if she believed in God. “I said yes. He said, ‘The clip is out,’ ” Edwards 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.

The first person shot was 17-year-old Ericka Osborn, witnesses and police said. Thompson had pursued Osborn for a date several times, said her mother, Susan Davis. He was rebuffed on Valentine’s Day only minutes before a dozen red roses arrived for Osborn from her boyfriend, Davis said.

The manager who asked Thompson to start work early, Doug Bowen, 37, was in serious condition with a head wound. Osborn was in fair condition.

Stacy Burgess, 15, was shot five times in the stomach and was listed in stable condition. Heather Rowe, 16, was in fair condition with a leg wound. Richard Goldrick, 47, was in fair condition and Christina Ferris, 16, was treated and released.

Thompson, also known as Marcus Benson, was booked into the county jail on six complaints of shooting with intent to kill.

As he was led into the jail, Thompson told reporters: “God, I love America.”