Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said a hostage situation in a Charleston, South Carolina, restaurant has ended with the gunman being shot by police.
Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said the restaurant employee shot by the gunman on Thursday has died. Interim Charleston Police Chief Jerome Taylor says all the hostages at Virginia's restaurant were rescued safely.
Earlier, an angry employee shot one person and held “a couple” of others hostage at a crowded restaurant during lunchtime in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, authorities said.
“This is not an act of terrorism. This is not a hate crime. It is a disgruntled employee,” Mr. Tecklenburg had said.
The shooting was reported shortly after noon on Thursday.
Peter Siegert, 73, and his son Peter Siegert IV, 45, were quoted by The Post and Courier of Charleston as saying that just after several waitresses and kitchen workers walked out the door without saying a word, a man in an apron with a gun came out of the kitchen and locked the front door.
The man told diners to get on the floor and move to the back of the restaurant. The Siegerts said they escaped out a back door and didn’t know how many people were left behind.
Charleston Police sent SWAT teams and a bomb disposal unit to the area. Authorities instructed people inside to stay inside and those outside to leave the area.
The site is a few blocks away from Emanuel AME church, where nine black members of a church were killed by a white man during a June 2015 Bible study. Dylann Roof was sentenced to death in the case.