Man fatally shot after buying meals for Waffle House customers
A man who was buying meals for fellow customers at a Waffle House in Florida was shot and killed after a fight with another patron, CBS affiliate WGFL-TV reports. Alachua County Sheriff's Office said the suspected gunman, identified as Ezekiel Hicks, 25, was arrested in the murder of Craig Brewer, 41.
According to authorities, Brewer and Hicks got into an argument at the eatery in Gainesville early Sunday. Hicks left the Waffle House, then returned and got into a physical fight with Brewer and shot him in the head, police said.
Rasheeda Johnson told WGFL her cousin was paying for other people's food moments before he was shot right in front of her.
"When he shot him I instantly tried to stop the bleeding," Johnson said. "That's all I was really focusing on trying to stop the bleeding. Maybe I could save him, maybe I could help him. But there was nothing I could really do."
Johnson said she still doesn't know why Hicks was so angry. She said Brewer was just helping others.
"Him being nice ended like this," she added. "This should have never happened."
Before the shooting, deputies had already been called to the Waffle House to help disperse a large crowd that gathered, Alachua County Sheriff's Office said.
Hicks, who is being held without bond, was charged with first-degree murder and carrying an unlicensed firearm, jail records show.
Brewer's family wants people to remember him for the deeds he did for others.
"If you ask anybody about him they will tell you the same thing — he was a good person, a loving person, a helper a friend, a brother a father," his sister Monique Ross said.