Manager of Wahoo’s Is Shot in Carjacking

The manager of a Wahoo’s Fish Taco restaurant in Costa Mesa was shot Wednesday during a carjacking and robbery as he tried to deposit his restaurant receipts at a nearby Bank of America, police said.

A friend of the manager, initially questioned as a witness, was later arrested on suspicion of conspiring in the incident, Costa Mesa Police Lt. Ron Smith said.

Smith said that just after 8 a.m. Wednesday, Wahoo’s manager Terrence Nichols, 29, prepared to take $14,000 from the restaurant on Bristol Street to the bank. Nichols’ longtime friend, Wayne Alexander Gardiner, 31, asked to accompany him.

As the two stood in the Wahoo’s parking lot, a man wielding a gun approached and told Nichols to hand over the keys to his Ford Explorer.

Nichols walked toward the gunman with the keys in one hand and a backpack with bank pouches of money in the other, but before he could hand over the keys, the man shot him once in the leg. The robber then took the keys and the backpack, and fled the scene in the Explorer.

Gardiner, saying he would try to track down the carjacker, drove after him in his Nissan Sentra. As Gardiner pursued the carjacker, Nichols called police from a nearby convenience store.

Officers arranged for him to be transported to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, then inspected the crime scene.

Gardiner returned to the scene and was questioned by police. When officers searched Gardiner’s Nissan, they found several bank pouches and $11,000 in cash.

When Gardiner could not explain how the money got there, officers suspected that he and the carjacker had agreed to meet and split the money.

Gardiner was arrested and is being held at Costa Mesa Jail on $100,000 bond.

Nichols was treated at the hospital and released Wednesday afternoon.

Police are still looking for the gunman, Smith said.