January 04, 2018 10:23 AM
UPDATED 1 MINUTE AGO
A number of witnesses told police they saw a manager at a Manchester restaurant shoot and kill an employee after an argument, arrest warrants for the alleged shooter and his girlfriend reveal.
James Goolsby, 28, was arrested Tuesday and charged with the murder of Norris Jackson. Goolsby’s bail was kept at $1 million bail. Goolsby’s girlfriend, Leanne Robitaille, 23, was charged with hindering prosecution. Her bail was kept at $100,000.
Both appeared briefly in Superior Court in Manchester. They are scheduled to return to court on Jan. 18 in Hartford.
Recent negative reviews of the restaurant, Bonchon Chicken, on Yelp “could have been a culminating factor” in the fatal shooting, said police spokesman Capt. Christopher Davis Wednesday. He said there was an on-going dispute between the couple and Jackson.
Goolsby also told a number of relatives about the shooting, the warrant indicates. He was captured at a warming center in Hartford. His girlfriend, who also worked at the restaurant, turned herself in to a Hartford police officer, law enforcement officials said.
Witnesses told police Goolsby shot Jackson four times after an argument. One family member told police Goolsby told him he shot a co-worker who was always disrespecting him and his girlfriend.
Negative online reviews on Yelp of Bonchon Chicken may have inflamed bad blood between Goolsby, who is the restaurant’s kitchen manager, and Jackson, a cook at the restaurant, police sources said. Robitaille also worked at the restaurant, according to the warrants.
The restaurant at the bustling Plaza at Buckland Hills had just opened for the day when the shooting happened, about 11:45 a.m. Saturday, Davis said. Jackson, 36, a father of seven, was pronounced dead at Hartford Hospital on Sunday.
Reviews of the restaurant have been mixed, with many positive comments and a few negative reviews, including two on Friday.
Jackson, who grew up in Hartford, had been living with several of his children, his girlfriend and her three children in East Hartford, but recently moved back to Hartford, his mother, Barbara Turner, said Monday.
Turner said Jackson started the job at Bonchon over the summer. Jackson was apparently not happy, at times, on the job. Recent posts on his own Facebook page included a photo on Nov. 15 that shows him raising a middle finger while working at a grill and deep fryer station.
“They (expletive) with me at work,” he wrote in the post.
On Dec. 20, Jackson posted – “6 straight days all 12hr shifts. And I gotta due this (expletive) Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun … “
In an interview at her home Monday, Turner said she had decided to let surgeons harvest her son’s organs so that others would benefit. She posted on Facebook Tuesday that Jackson’s right kidney was donated to a 49-year-old man and saved his life.
“He’s making a difference in somebody’s life – my son lives on in other people,” she said.
Bonchon Chicken, an international fried chicken franchise based in South Korea, put out a brief statement over the weekend on its company Facebook page.
“We at Bonchon Franchise are deeply saddened by the tragic shooting in Manchester, CT today, and are deeply concerned about the family and friends who are suffering,” the post reads. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim and their family as we also respect their privacy during this ordeal.”
Hartford Courant staff writers Sandra Gomez-Aceves and Christine Dempsey contributed to this report.
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