Background: The Burger King restaurant located at 1330 Poplar Ave. in Memphis, Tenn. (Google Maps). Insets (from top to bottom): Dale Townes and Trevor Young (Shelby County Sheriff's Office).
An evening at a Tennessee Burger King turned violent when authorities say two suspects confronted a man over a suspected stolen item before one of them shot the victim's father as he tried to intervene.
Dale Townes, 25, has been charged with attempted second-degree murder and employing a firearm with intent to commit a felony, Shelby County court records show.
Trevor Young, 30, faces charges of aggravated assault and accessory after the fact.
At about 6:20 p.m. on Tuesday, a father and son were inside the Burger King restaurant at 1330 Poplar Ave. in Memphis, Tennessee. A white Dodge "heavy-duty" pickup truck with a trailer carrying a green John Deere lawn mower and lawn equipment pulled up, officials say.
Inside the truck were Townes and Young, according to an affidavit of complaint in Townes' case, and the "suspects believed the son had stolen an Apple Watch."
"The suspects confronted the son in the Burger King parking lot and began fighting him," the court document adds, noting that the son knew the men from working for Young's lawn service "for years." The son managed to get away and run into the fast-food joint "to get his father," and the two suspects followed.
The three men exited the restaurant, and so did the father, who came outside and "attempted to defuse the situation but was unsuccessful and the suspects began to aggressively assault the son," according to a witness in Burger King.
When that failed, the father reportedly hit one of the suspects, and Townes allegedly responded by pulling out a gun and shooting the father "at close range." Young then told his fellow suspect "not to shoot again," and they left the scene in their truck, authorities said.
Officers with the Memphis Police Department responded to the area and found the father "lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the left side of his abdomen." The son was also there, with "injuries to his shoulder due to being beat continuously with an unknown object."
The father was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition, and the son was brought to a different hospital and listed as "non-critical." Police also found one spent 9 mm casing at the scene.
The father's status was later downgraded to non-critical, local NBC affiliate WMC reported.
In addition to speaking with witnesses, investigators said they reviewed video from inside the restaurant that showed the son "running into Burger King to get away from the" suspects. The video allegedly showed that, just like the witness said, the suspects chased the son inside before going back outside, where the shooting occurred.
When officers spoke with the son, he told them Young was the one who repeatedly beat him. About 15 minutes after the attack, police spotted the suspects' vehicle and arrested them.
The defendants were scheduled to have a bail review hearing and arraignment on Thursday.