Customer fatally shoots 18-year-old Waffle House employee, suspect at large: Police
Laurinburg Police Department
(LAURINBURG, N.C.) — A Waffle House employee was fatally shot in North Carolina by a customer who became “agitated and verbally abusive” toward employees after placing his order, according to the Laurinburg Police Department.
Officers responded to a report of shots fired shortly after midnight Friday at a Waffle House in Laurinburg, where they found 18-year-old Burlie Dawson Locklear suffering from a gunshot wound, police said.
Locklear was transported to Scotland Memorial Hospital where he later died.
An investigation revealed the suspect came to the Waffle House and ordered food, but while it was being prepared he became “more agitated and verbally abusive toward the employees,” according to police.
He walked away from the restaurant after being given his food, but turned while walking to his car and fired two shots toward the Waffle House, striking Locklear, police said.
The suspect then fled the scene, police said.
Police described the suspect is a 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10 Black male with light skin, long dreads, facial hair including a beard and mustache. He was last seen wearing a dark blue hoodie, blue jeans and white shoes.
The suspect was operating a dark gray vehicle, possibly a 2014 Chevrolet, according to police.
The investigation into this incident is active and police are asking anyone with information to contact them.
(NEW YORK) — The trial for Andrew Lester, the Kansas City man charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl after the teenager mistakenly went to the wrong house, was delayed indefinitely on Monday after a judge ordered a mental evaluation for the 85-year-old to determine if he is fit to stand trial.
Lester appeared in court Monday morning for a preliminary hearing ahead of the trial, which was set to begin on Oct. 7. ABC News reached out to Lester’s attorney, Steven Salmon, for additional comment. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 8.
Lester, a white man, was charged with one count of felony assault in the first-degree and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony, in the April 2023 shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who mistakenly went to Lester’s home after arriving at the wrong address to pick up his twin brothers from a play date. Lester has pleaded not guilty.
Yarl was shot in the head and in the right arm on the evening of April 13, 2023, by Lester, a homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, according to police. The teenager suffered a traumatic brain injury, his family previously told ABC News.
The delay in this case comes after Salmon filed a motion in the Clay County Circuit Court on Aug. 27, requesting a mental evaluation to determine if Lester is fit to stand trial, according to court documents obtained by ABC News.
The motion, which was reviewed by ABC News, argued that Lester is facing health conditions that could impair his ability to understand legal proceedings or assist in his defense. According to court documents, Lester has lost more than 50 pounds, experienced issues with his memory and has exhibited confusion surrounding the details of the case.
“Over the course of this case, Counsel has noticed a significant decline in Defendant’s overall physical health, as well as his mental acuity,” Salmon said in the motion.
“The frailty of Defendant’s physical health has, in part, been because of a broken hip, heart issues and hospitalization he has suffered during the pendency of this matter,” he added.
Salmon also said that Lester, who pleaded not guilty in April 2023 and was released on a $200,000 bond, has faced “stress” due to “overwhelming media attention, as well as death threats and other unwanted attention, making it difficult for him to interact socially with anyone.”
Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson responded to the motion requesting a mental health evaluation in a filing on Aug. 28, saying, “the State respectfully moves this Court to make a determination regarding whether reasonable cause exists to believe that the accused lacks mental fitness to proceed prior to deciding whether to order a mental evaluation.”
ABC News has reached out to the Yarl family for comment.
The trial was initially set after a Clay County judge ruled during a preliminary hearing in August 2023 that there was enough probable cause that a felony has been committed.
“The binding over of a defendant from a preliminary hearing is fairly normal. The prosecutor simply needs to provide probable cause to bind the case over,” Salmon told ABC News after the August 2023 ruling.
(PALM BEACH, Fla.) — Kai Trump, President-elect Donald Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter, released an “Election Night Vlog” on her YouTube channel Monday afternoon, where she took viewers behind the scenes into her family’s experience awaiting results on election night.
“I’m ready to party it up tonight, and hopefully we can catch a dub,” Kai Trump said, tapping into Gen-Z slang.
She provided an inside look into the viral family photo taken in Mar-a-Lago on election night, with footage featuring Trump talking about “dark MAGA” hats and insisting on including surrogate Elon Musk in the shot.
“Elon? You have to have a picture with your boy,” Trump said. “You have to get Elon with his boy. Gorgeous, perfect boy.”
Early in the evening, the family was seated around four TV screens displaying ABC News, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC newscasts as they eagerly awaited for results to filter in. Trump could be briefly seen sitting silently facing the TV screens.
“He’s up right now 20 Electoral College votes, so I think that’s pretty solid,” Kai said, describing the newscast results at the moment.
Providing a more casual, lighthearted glimpse into night, Kai also recorded herself getting her hair and makeup done, picking out her outfit, and taking selfies with family members.
Additional shots featured Kai driving to Mar-a-Lago and the Palm Beach County Convention Center, cracking jokes with a friend about Nutella, and singing along to “Money, Money, Money” from the “Mamma Mia” soundtrack — what she said was her go-to song whenever she pulls into Mar-a-Lago. The crowd could also be seen emulating Trump’s signature dance moves.
In addition to these lighter moments, Kai also opened up about the emotional aspect of the night, particularly in terms of her nerves.
“The past five days, I have been so nervous, like I feel like I’ve had butterflies in my stomach for so long,” she said, in addition to later expressing her anxieties by “stress-eating” sweet treats. Later in the video, she explains how she began “tearing up” when Pennsylvania was called for Trump.
Towards the end of the vlog, Kai announced that they were headed to say hello to Vice President-elect JD Vance, though the footage did not feature him. Melania Trump was also not seen or mentioned in the video.
While Kai did not record Trump’s ultimate victory or the celebratory events/reactions following the results, she later filmed a one-on-one explaining her admiration of her grandfather.
“I just finished playing 18 holes with him. It was his first time playing in probably 90 days or more,” she said, before recapping the sentimental value of Election Night. “It’s his last time running, so it was so special for him to win,” she said.
The oldest daughter of Donald Trump Jr., Kai recently stepped into the public eye after delivering a speech at the Republican National Convention in July in which she described Trump as a “normal grandpa” who is “very caring and loving.”
Kai’s YouTube channel, which has 133k subscribers, consists of additional vlogs featuring her golf skills and other behind-the-scenes glimpses into her life. She is also active on TikTok with 934.7k followers.
(NEW YORK) — A Georgia sheriff whose office in 2023 investigated an online school shooting threat that led to Colt Gray, the teen now accused of a deadly rampage inside his high school last week, said they “probably” dropped the ball on notifying the suspect’s school district about monitoring him.
Colt Gray, 14, is accused of killing two students and two teachers in Wednesday’s shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, about 45 miles north of Atlanta. Nine others were also injured. Colt Gray had transferred from another school in neighboring Jackson County to Apalachee only two weeks prior, the sheriff’s department in Barrow County told ABC News.
In May of last year, the sheriff’s office in Jackson County investigated an online school shooting threat that the FBI said was traced to Colt Gray. The FBI reached out to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office after Discord users alerted the Bureau about a post threatening a shooting at a middle school in Jefferson, Georgia.
An investigator interviewed Colt Gray and his father about the post at their home on May 21, 2023. The then-13-year-old told the investigator he had a Discord account but had deleted it months earlier and denied making the threats online, according to a transcript of the interview. There was no probable cause for arrest, the FBI said in a statement.
Following the investigation, a former captain in the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office sent a note to the FBI saying that “we have made area schools aware and will monitor this subject,” according to the sheriff’s office. The FBI also said in a statement that Jackson County “alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject.”
Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum said following the school shooting in Barrow County, the FBI alerted her that the suspect was the same teenager her office had investigated last year. Mangum said in a news release on Sept. 6 that after “speaking with Dr. Donna McMullan with the Jefferson City Schools On September 5, 2024, it came to my attention they had no record of being notified of a threat by Colt Gray who was enrolled there.”
The incident raises questions about whether the previous district could have forwarded that information to Barrow County Schools officials once Colt Gray transferred to their district two weeks ago.
Asked by ABC News on Monday whether her office dropped the ball, Mangum said not on the investigation.
“But on notifying the school, probably,” she said, noting that some personnel who worked on the case left the office before the shooting incident last week. “Because I don’t know. If you say area schools are notified, who did you talk to and what school did you talk to? I don’t know.”
Mangum maintained that the 2023 investigation was “done thoroughly” but said she is unable to provide an answer about what happened with the school notification.
“I’m the sheriff. The bottom line is, it falls on me because I am the sheriff,” she continued.
Mangum said Monday her office was looking into emails to see if they could find any records, but at this time they only have the note the former captain sent to the FBI stating that the office did notify schools. She said she has yet to speak to the former captain who sent the note to the FBI and the former investigator who interviewed Colt Gray. She indicated that she didn’t know whether the former captain made phone calls to any area schools instead of leaving a paper trail.
ABC News has reached out to the former captain and investigator for comment.
As for the investigation into the online school shooting threat, Mangum said there wasn’t probable cause for an arrest or to charge the teen with making a terroristic threat.
“As far as the investigation, no, I don’t see anything else that could have been done back then in May of 2023 that he could have done. He did everything he could do at that time with what he had,” Mangum said of the investigator.
She said she believes the 2023 investigation will likely be important for the prosecution regarding the school shooting last week.
Mangum said she is “heartbroken” over the deadly incident.
“My prayers go out to those families that lost their loved ones,” she said. “It hurts me to even think that that could have happened anywhere.”
Colt Gray has been charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder. More charges will be filed, prosecutors said.
His father, Colin Gray, has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children in the second degree, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. He is accused of “knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said last week.
The father and son both made their first court appearances on Friday. Neither has entered a plea and both are set to return to court on Dec. 4.
