Alert Pa. McDonald's worker saw Facebook killing suspect, called 911

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Owner of McDonalds restaurant in Erie, Pa speaks

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- An alert McDonald's employee led Pennsylvania police to the suspect in a Cleveland slaying that was recorded and posted on Facebook.

Henry Sayers, the Erie restaurant's manager, tells reporters that Steve Stephens pulled up to the drive-thru Tuesday morning and ordered a 20-piece Chicken McNuggets and french fries.

The Facebook killing suspect shot himself to death, Pennsylvania State Police say.

He says the attendant recognized Stephens, who was wanted in Sunday's slaying of a retired Ohio man, and called 911.

Restaurant owner Thomas DuCharme Jr. tells the Erie Times-News that workers tried to "buy some time for the cops" and told Stephens his order of fries was delayed. DuCharme says Stephens replied he had no time to wait and drove away.

"He came through the drive-thru, placed his order, got to the first window where you pay, and the drive-thru employee that was working at the time recognized him - or thought - noticed the car had Ohio tags on it, and was a white Fusion. And took his money, he pulled to the next window, meanwhile she stepped out of there and called the state police right away," DuCharme said.

"I pulled my front drive-thru girl out of the window and had myself and my supervisor present at the window and basically told him it was going be a minute for his fries, which it wasn't, really, we were just trying to make sure she got in contact with the state police."

"He didn't want to wait for the fries, which was fine. He took his 6-piece and didn't want any money back and headed out on to Buffalo Road."

"About the minute he turned right on to Buffalo Road, the state police was right behind him at that point, so it was, roughly - he couldn't have gotten 100 yards on Buffalo Road before the police were behind him."

State police gave chase. Authorities say Stephens shot and killed himself during the pursuit.

"I'm just very proud of my staff and how they handled it; I was here at the time when it all went down, how my staff handled it is what I'm most proud of. I'm just thankful no one else got hurt," DuCharme said.