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A man fatally shot an employee and injured another at an Atlanta subway restaurant over the weekend because he had “too much mayonnaise in his sandwich,” police said Monday morning.
The shooter fired a gun at two workers, a 26-year-old woman who died from her injuries and a 24-year-old woman who was in critical condition, Deputy Police Chief Charles Hampton Jr. told reporters. The injured woman’s 5-year-old was at the restaurant at the time.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified the dead woman as Brittany Macon.
The incident began around 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Hampton said, when a man “who was unable to resolve the conflict” by his order opened fire.
“There was something wrong with the sandwich that made him so upset that he decided to vent his anger on two of the employees,” Hampton said.
Police arrested a 36-year-old Atlanta man “near” the downtown restaurant Sunday night after someone called a suggestion, Hampton said.
Willie Glenn, co-owner of the restaurant, said the women were “model employees” who had started working there about three weeks ago, WSB-TV reported.
“It breaks my heart to know that someone has the audacity to point a gun and shoot someone with too much mayonnaise in a sandwich,” he told the station.
Hampton told reporters he was “frustrated” by “gun owners who don’t make the right decisions” and by the momentary impatience that can hurt families forever.
“I want the focus to be on armed violence,” he said. “Yes, it’s a sandwich, but more importantly, someone who hasn’t been able to resolve a conflict just by leaving, having a conversation … decided to take action in their hands, and now we have devastated families.”
The 5-year-old will undergo counseling, Hampton said.
Atlanta has had more than 70 homicides in 2022, 19 percent more than the same period in 2021, according to the latest data from the Atlanta police department. It had 160 homicides in 2021, the highest total since 1996, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.