A 12-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man have been charged with murder after the juvenile fatally shot an employee at a Sonic Drive-In restaurant in Texas, police said.
The shooting unfolded Saturday evening at the Sonic in the 300 block of South Old Betsy Road in Keene, local police said. Keene is located about 30 miles south of Fort Worth.
Angel Gomez, 20, went to the Sonic in a car with other passengers and was acting “disorderly” in the parking lot when he was confronted by Sonic worker Matthew Davis, 32, authorities said.
Keene Police Chief James Kidd said Davis confronted Gomez for urinating in the parking lot, NBC Dallas–FortWorth reported.
The two argued and the confrontation turned physical, police said.
During the altercation, a juvenile from Fort Worth who was a passenger in the suspect’s vehicle “retrieved a firearm and fired multiple shots, striking the victim,” police said in a statement.
Keene police did not identify the juvenile, but the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, which assisted in responding to the shooting, said the juvenile shooting suspect was 12 years old.
Officers were called to the scene shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time, but Gomez and the juvenile had already fled the area of the shooting.
Officers found David “lying in the parking lot having suffered multiple gunshot wounds,” police said.
He was airlifted to Harris Methodist Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Gomez eventually returned to the scene and was taken into custody. Police said law enforcement agencies located the juvenile in Rio Vista, took him into custody and recovered several firearms.
Sonic said in a statement: “We were saddened to learn about the tragedy involving a franchised team member in Keene, TX. The franchisee is cooperating fully with local authorities as they conduct their investigation.”
