Workplace violence. Nothing to see. Move along now.
Authorities on Friday named 53-year-old Thomas Demetrius Burns as the suspect who was shot and wounded by officers at Virginia's on King restaurant.
Burns is currently at the Medical University of South Carolina and, while no additional information has been released, authorities said Thursday that the suspect was in critical condition.
'I don't think anybody realized he had a gun until after he locked the door.'
The Charleston Post and Courier also quoted other witnesses as saying the 'older black man...walked through the front door holding a small caliber revolver. He locked the door and said: "I am the new king of Charleston".
Guess he's been watching too much Game of Thrones.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4823912/Police-ID-suspected-gunman-restaurant-slaying.html
The Charleston Post and Courier also quoted other witnesses as saying the 'older black man...walked through the front door holding a small caliber revolver. He locked the door and said: "I am the new king of Charleston".
Burns has a lengthy criminal record stretching back three decades. His first convictions came after he was charged in 1983 with armed robbery and assault and battery with intent to kill, according to State Law Enforcement Division records.
He received a 20-year prison sentence on those charges, which stemmed from a holdup in which a minister was shot in the spine and left partially paralyzed, records show.
Since his release from prison, Burns' rap sheet includes convictions for malicious injury to property, receiving stolen goods, cocaine possession, strong arm robbery, second-degree assault and larceny, according to SLED.
http://www.theitem.com/stories/suspected-gunman-had-history-of-violence,294433Authorities have not said how Burns obtained the gun that was used in the shooting. As a convicted felon, he would have been barred from legally buying or possessing the pistol.
Sounds like it....In June 2012, Burns was convicted of robbery and second-degree assault and battery. Court records say Burns snatched another man's cellphone. When the owner fought back, Burns slashed him across the face with a sharp object, causing a "severe laceration" on the left side of the victim's face from his eye to his lip. He was again sentenced to prison.
Whiddon was hired a year ago as the top chef at Virginia's. The Georgia native had been cooking for more than 17 years at restaurants in the South, including at the Sea Island Company's posh resort on the Georgia coast, according to Holy City Hospitality, the company that owns Virginia's.
"He was just a gem," a weeping Terri Thomas Wall, one of Whiddon's neighbors, said in an interview.
Looks like a poor transition, but I believe they were referring to the chef (Whiddon) as the gem, not the shooter (Burns).Sounds like it....
Wait. =;'I don't think anybody realized he had a gun until after he locked the door.'
The Charleston Post and Courier also quoted other witnesses as saying the 'older black man...walked through the front door holding a small caliber revolver. He locked the door and said: "I am the new king of Charleston".