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 former Illinois sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot Sonya Massey in her home after she called 911 to report a prowler was the subject of a complaint alleging inappropriate conduct following a 2022 arrest, according to Sean Grayson’s disciplinary paperwork obtained by ABC News.
A woman arrested by Grayson stated that he asked her to remove drugs from her vaginal area in front of him and another officer when he was employed with the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, according to police records. Grayson worked at the Logan County Sheriff’s Office full time from May 2022 until he resigned in April 2023. He was hired in May 2023 by the Sangamon Sheriff’s Office, where he remained until he was fired following the Massey killing.
“I went to do as he had instructed me to do feeling very afraid and forced to do such action,” the detainee stated in her complaint against Grayson. “The C.O., Aaron (Female C.O.) stopped me and informed officer Grayson that I was not to do that in front of them because they are male officers.”
According to the report, the female officer then took the woman away from the male officers, so the detainee could attempt to extract the narcotics, but she was not able to retrieve them. The detainee was then transported to a hospital to have the drugs removed.
The woman then claimed that when she was on a hospital bed “completely exposed” during the procedure, Grayson flung the curtain back, causing her to be visible to him and, what she believed were two other male officers, before the doctor immediately shut the curtain and told the officers not to enter again.
“I knocked on the door and walked into the room,” Grayson claimed in a police report, explaining that he entered to deliver a plastic evidence bag for the extracted narcotics. “As I entered the room I observed [name extracted by ABC News for the former detainee’s privacy] laying on the bed fully clothed in a gown and with a blanket on her.”
Grayson stated in the report that when police originally told the woman to remove the drugs, he handed her a plastic glove and asked her to extract the narcotics. A “female jailor” then took the woman “into the jail” to attempt to remove the narcotics, according to the former deputy.
“In conclusion of this I was never in physical contact with [name extracted by ABC News],” Grayson stated. “I was never alone with [name extracted by ABC News]. I did not talk to [name extracted by ABC News] alone at any point.”
Grayson resigned in “good standing” from the Logan County Sheriff’s Office to join Sangamon County law enforcement before the complaint could be officially investigated, according to a police record.
The former deputy has been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct in Massey’s death. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and remains in custody.
A review by Illinois State Police found Grayson was not justified in his use of deadly force. He was fired from his position with the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office on July 17, the same day the charges were filed against him.
Grayson’s job with Sangamon County was one of six different police jobs he held over the past four years.
Miller, Grayson’s boss at the Logan County Sheriff’s Office, expressed concerns over Grayson violating department policy and submitting inaccurate reports while discussing his mishandling of a traffic case, according to audio files previously obtained by ABC News.
Prior to his time in public law enforcement, Grayson was discharged from the U.S. Army for unspecified “misconduct (serious offense),” according to documents obtained by ABC News. The U.S. Army, citing the Privacy Act and Department of Defense policy, said it is prevented from releasing information relating to the misconduct of low-level employees or characterization of service at discharge.
ABC News also learned that Grayson was charged with two DUI offenses in Macoupin County, Illinois, in August 2015 and July 2016, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty to both charges. He paid over $1,320 in fines and had his vehicle impounded as a result of the 2015 incident. In 2016, Grayson paid over $2,400 in fines, according to court records.
Grayson and a second, unnamed deputy responded to Massey’s 911 call on July 6 reporting a possible intruder at her Springfield home.
Body camera footage shows Massey, who was unarmed, telling the two responding deputies, “Please, don’t hurt me,” once she answered their knocks on her door.
Grayson responded, “I don’t want to hurt you, you called us.”
Later in the video, while inside Massey’s home as she searches for her ID, Grayson points to a pot of boiling water on her stove and says, “We don’t need a fire while we’re in here.”
Massey then pours the water into the sink and tells the deputy, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”
Grayson then shouts at Massey and threatens to shoot her, the video shows, and Massey apologizes and ducks down behind a counter, covering her face with what appears to be a red oven mitt. She briefly rises, at which time Grayson shoots her three times in the face, the footage shows.
Grayson said he feared for his life during his encounter with Massey, according to documents released by the Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office last week.
“While on scene, I was in fear Dep. (redacted) and I were going to receive great bodily harm or death. Due to being in fear of our safety and life, I fired my duty weapon,” Grayson wrote in his field case report.
Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell, who hired Grayson, will be retiring later this month, he announced Friday in a statement.
“As elected leaders, we must always put the overall good of the community above ourselves; and I will not risk the community that I swore to protect. For this reason, I am announcing my retirement as Sheriff of Sangamon County, effective no later than August 31st,” Campbell said in the statement.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Four children, ages 11 to 14, driving around Minneapolis in a stolen car were shot and wounded, one critically, when an assailant chasing them unleashed a barrage of gunfire on the vehicle, police said.
The shooting unfolded around 1 a.m. Sunday in northwest Minneapolis, setting off ShotSpotter gunfire detection activations and prompting multiple 911 calls, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
Two boys and two girls were shot in the incidents, and an 11-year-old boy driving the stolen car was taken into custody, O’Hara said. One of the wounded girls was shot in the head and was in critical but stable condition at Hennepin Medical Center, O’Hara said. The other three juveniles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, O’Hara said.
The names of those injured were not released.
“Four kids shot between [the ages] 11 and 14 is outrageous and everyone should be up in arms over it. The police are doing everything that we can in response to this, but we can’t keep responding after the fact,” O’Hara said Sunday.
The assailant who opened fire on the stolen white Kia has not been caught or identified and a motive for the shooting remains under investigation.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that five minors were inside of a stolen Kia driving in this area when a dark-colored sedan began following them and firing at them with fully automatic gunfire,” O’Hara said at a news conference Sunday near the crime scene.
At least 30 shell casings were collected at the scene, O’Hara said.
“We believe even more rounds were fired because some of those casings may have been inside the suspect vehicle,” O’Hara said.
The chief said the driver of the stolen car, an 11-year-old boy who was not injured in the shooting, was detained at the scene but was later released to his parents.
O’Hara said two of the juveniles in the stolen car were arrested less than two weeks ago for being in a stolen vehicle.
“We are failing to deter this behavior and, with that being said, we are failing these kids as well,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara said the shooting came during an uptick that Minneapolis police noticed this month in the theft of Kias and Hyundais after the number of those types of stolen vehicles had gone down in the past year.
“What’s most notable over the course of the year is that while there’s fewer of these cars being stolen, the activity that these juveniles are involved with has become more and more brazen,” O’Hara said. “There have been more aggravated assaults, more robberies, more hit and runs, more serious crimes more frequently committed by those individuals who were involved in the theft of these cars. So it’s very, very concerning.”
He said Sunday’s shooting is an example of the escalating boldness of the perpetrators.
“It just shows really brazen, callous behavior,” O’Hara said. “They don’t care about their own lives let alone the lives of other people.”
(HILLSBOROUGH, N.C.) — A convicted murderer is on the loose after escaping from a North Carolina hospital Tuesday morning, officials said.
Ramone Alston, 30, escaped from North Carolina Department of Corrections custody while receiving medical care at UNC Hospital in Hillsborough, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
Alston was convicted of shooting and killing a 1-year-old girl in 2015.
He was last seen wearing a gray T-shirt, brown pants and white New Balance sneakers, as well as handcuffs connected to a belly chain, officials said.
Officials are asking the public to immediately call 911 if they see Alston and warning them not to approach him.
