Off-Duty Cop Gets Impatient At McDonald’s, Pulls Gun On Customer

When we write about customer disputes at fast food joints, it usually involves the cops showing up to put an end to things. But here’s a tale of an impatient police officer who has been accused of pulling his gun on the car in front of him at the McDonald’s drive-thru.

WXIA-TV reports that the incident occurred on April 9 in Forsyth County, GA. The officer, a detective with the DeKalb County Police, pulled into the drive-thru and ended up behind a truck.

McDonald's surveillance cameras caught the incident on tape.

McDonald’s surveillance cameras caught the incident on tape.

“[W]e were waiting on them to cook the food,” says the driver, who happens to work at that McDonald’s but was just picking up some food with friends at the time of the confrontation. “And the cop — I didn’t know at first that he was a cop — pulled up behind us and waited about two minutes, two to three minutes…. And he got out and started yelling, yelling at us, ‘Stop holding up the drive-thru line,’ this that and the other. He walked back over to his car, got back in, and I said, ‘Sorry for the inconvenience, Sir.’ And he goes, ‘Who has the loud mouth?’ And I was, like, ‘I said that,’ not being smart or anything. He’s like, ‘Well, you never know who you’re messing with.’ And I was just like, ‘No, Sir, I don’t.’ He goes, ‘Keep your mouth shut.’ I was like, ‘I’m sorry.’ He’s like, ‘Well, you don’t know who you’re messing with. And there’s some crazy people out there.’ And that’s when he pulled the gun on me, and kept on yelling at me for about thirty more seconds. And then walked off.”

The 18-year-old says the detective pointed the gun at his neck while shouting things like “You don’t know who you are [expletive]-ing with,” and “You never know who you are [expletive]-ing with.”

The passengers in the truck took down the license plate and noted the details of the man’s car as he drove off. One of them had noticed a badge on the gun-wielder’s belt. Along with security camera footage of the incident, this was enough for the Forsyth County Sheriff to locate the suspect, who was later identified in a photo lineup by the people in the truck that night.

“We believe, right now, that it was his duty weapon, and a DeKalb-County-issued vehicle that he was in,” says the Sheriff.

The detective has been charged with felony aggravated assault. He was released from custody the next day on a $22,000 bond and has been placed on administrative leave.

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