McDonald’s has spoken out after an incident at one of their locations saw a shooting break out in the drive-thru lane, leaving one underage employee critically injured.
According to law enforcement reports, the incident began at a McDonald’s restaurant on the 3300 block of Dickerson Pike in Nashville, Tennessee, at approximately 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) were called to the location after receiving reports that an employee had been shot.
In the lead-up to the incident, employees said that a red or maroon Chevrolet sedan was making its way through the drive-thru lane, with two male occupants in the front and two female occupants in the back. At a certain point, the occupants of the vehicle became upset with their order and started to argue about it with staff at the fast food restaurant. Among their complaints was the accusation that they had been charged the wrong amount at the first window, which they told the 17-year-old working the second window.
While other employees were working to resolved the issue, at one point a back window on the sedan was rolled down and a passenger produced a pistol. In response, the teen employee produced his own firearm from his waistband and the two sides opened fire at each other.
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In the chaos, the young employee was wounded, later being transported by pickup truck to the nearby Vanderbilt University Medical Center for treatment. Police officials said that he was critically injured in the confrontation, but that as of Saturday afternoon, he was stable. The firearm he used in the incident was later recovered by police at the home of one of the employee’s friends.
Speaking with local news station WSMV about the incident, a McDonald’s official released a statement lamenting the situation as “senseless.”
“We are deeply saddened by the senseless act of violence that took place in our Dickerson Pike restaurant early this morning,” McDonald’s owner and operator Clark Gray said. “Our team is cooperating with local law enforcement in their investigation.”
No arrests have yet been made in the case, though officials are pursuing leads to help determine who was in the sedan involved in the shooting.
Newsweek reached out to the MNPD via email on Sunday morning for comment.
Such instances of violence at fast food restaurants are not uncommon. In June 2022, a McDonald’s employee in Atlanta went on the run after allegedly shooting a manager during a heated argument.
In addition, a 25-year-old man was arrested in January by police in Florida after allegedly shooting and injuring an 18-year-old man with a BB gun outside a McDonald’s.
Earlier this month, a complaint about slow service escalated drastically at a Dunkin’ store in North Carolina, leading to an employee chasing down and opening fire at a customer.
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