Facts

Taco Bell Employees Shoot And Kill Masked Suspect During Armed Robbery

taco bell cosmonaut / istockphoto.com
Taylor Rock|

Taco Bell workers in Cleveland opened fire on two armed and masked robbers on Sept. 6. Cleveland.com  reports that the employees — two 19-year-old men and a 23-year-old man — shot one of the would-be robbers six times just before 3 a.m. inside the restaurant in the city's Edgewater neighborhood. Shortly after, the 24-year-old, later identified by Cuyahoga County medical examiners as De'Carlo Jackson, was pronounced dead at a local hospital.  

Police said that when the two armed men arrived, they ordered three employees to the ground by gunpoint, according to the New York Daily News. They proceeded to walk over to the cash register when three other employees in the store, each armed with a gun, shot at them. Jackson went down and the other suspect fled the scene.

Taco Bell has a corporate policy against employees being armed on the job, but Jonathan Witmer-Rich, an associate professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, told a local ABC affiliate that "people are entitled to defend themselves under the law, and if they use deadly force that's legally justified."

No additional arrests have been made at this time, but Taco Bell says they're offering counseling for employees. "Taco Bell and Sigma Bell, LLC., the franchise owner of this Cleveland, Ohio location, are shocked this happened at the restaurant. Our Franchisee is full cooperating with the Cleveland Police Department in their investigation. The employees are very shaken up from today's events, and our franchisee is offering them counseling," the company said in a statement. For more on Taco Bell, here are 9 things we bet you don't know about the Tex-Mex chain.

Recommended