A police officer has confirmed to reporters that the shooter who took several hostages in downtown Charleston, S.C. is “down.”
A former employee of the Virginia’s On King restaurant walked into the establishment and shot and killed one of his former coworkers and took several others hostage Thursday. Police shot the suspect and he has been transported to the hospital. The event is not being investigated as an act of terrorism or a hate crime, officials confirmed to The Post and Courier.
Paramedics were seen carrying one person out of the restaurant on a stretcher, and police began deconstructing the perimeter around the restaurant soon afterward.
Police had responded to a hostage situation after an an elderly black man entered the restaurant Thursday afternoon, dressed like a member of the kitchen staff and wielding a small caliber revolver in his left hand. The former employee of Virginia’s promptly locked the front door and told the restaurant’s patrons, “I am the new king of Charleston.”
The mayor was quick to confirm that the shooting was not based in ideology.
“The shooter is a disgruntled employee,” Charleston City Mayor John Tecklenburg said Thursday. “This is not an act of terrorism. This is not a hate crime.”
The shooter remains unnamed and medical personnel have not announced the identity of the person carried out on the stretcher.
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