A father’s quick action saved lives this weekend at an Alabama McDonald’s (Photo: NNECAPA, Wikimedia Commons)
An Alabama man is being hailed as a hero after he used his concealed firearm to stop a masked gunman at a McDonald’s in southwest Birmingham.
The suspect entered the restaurant as it was closing on Saturday night around 10:45pm, according to local media. He gained access by entering just as an employee was unlocking the door for a father and his two sons to leave. The suspect opened fire as soon as he entered, but the father drew his own concealed weapon and returned fire.
“He’s my hero,” Markus Washington, a McDonald’s employee, told WBRC. “Because I can only imagine how it would’ve went if he wasn’t armed. We might not be here having this interview.”
When police arrived they found the father, one of his sons, and the suspect suffering from gunshot wounds. A witness told AL.com that she heard eight or nine shots ring out as she was waiting for her food in the drive-through. She heard two more shots as she watched people running from the restaurant, including children.
Washington, who found cover in one of the restaurant freezers, told a similar story.
“All we hear is like different gunfire, so in my mind, I’m imagining everybody is dead. He’s looking for us,” Washington said.
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Police say the father and son are both still alive and being treated at a local hospital, according to WBRC. The suspect died from his injuries.
“It’s truly sad, but it’s something as a community we can overcome,” Birmingham police spokesman Sgt. Bryan Shelton told AL.com. “We just have to work together to find a solution to our issues without resorting to violence. Right now it appears the victim made a decision that cost his life and the father made a decision that preserved his and children’s life.”
Police aren’t sure whether the suspect entered the McDonald’s to rob it or to target an employee. Police scanners initially reported the incident as a robbery in progress, but that might not explain the suspect’s decision to open fire immediately.
Washington said he’s grateful for the father’s intervention, but the experience has left him shaken.
“Wrapping my head around it all, I was just wishing someone would come wake me up from this nightmare,” he said.
Police have yet to release the name of the father who stepped in to stop the suspect. According to initial reports, police say they have no plans to charge the father with a crime.
If this good Samaritan hadn’t been there to stop this dirtbag and the perp wiped out a bunch of innocent people the libetards would be screaming their heads off demanding tighter gun control. Obviously they’ll sit quietly on this one.
I hope and pray his family weathers this storm and makes a speedy recovery.
Bad career choice on the perp’s part.
“…Right now it appears the victim made a decision that cost his life and the father made a decision that preserved his and children’s life.”
I hope they meant the “Perpetrator” not Victim.
Well spoken. This type of saddle miscommunication is destroying our narrative. It needs to be stopped!
If anything the innocent people there were the victims. The PERPETRATOR on the other hand, gets what he gets.
McDee’s became an ardent contributor to gun control after the San Ysidro incident in 1986 (link below). I wonder if this will cause them to change directions or at least reconsider their stance. Aside from the terrible food, I don’t patronize them due to their political views.
[www.history.com/this-day-in…/twenty-one-people-are-shot-to-death-at-mcdonalds]
No, it won’t. They are too far down that liberal road to ever turn back.
Apparently Mickey Dee’s doesn’t have one of those gun-free zone signs on its door or this wouldn’t have happened…SARCASM EMOJI
mac’s may advertise their outlets as centers of: “Fish In Barrels; we knee jerks serve the defenseless”.
You’re correct. It would not have happened. The law abiding citizen that stopped this a$$hole either would have left his weapon in his car, or would not have been inside the store to end this, and a lot more people would be wounded or dead!!