Two masked and armed men entered a Cleveland Taco Bell this week during an attempted robbery, but only one lived to talk about it.
Police and EMS workers arrived at a Taco Bell at West 117th Street and Franklin Boulevard on Wednesday morning to find 24-year-old De’Carlo Jackson barely breathing and filled with bullet wounds.
He was pronounced dead at a local hospital shortly afterward, although a second suspect managed to escape a trio of armed employees during the robbery attempt.
Taco Bell has a corporate policy against employees being armed on the job, but Jonathan Witmer-Rich, an associate professor at Cleveland Marshall College of Law, told a local ABC affiliate that this will have no bearing on the criminal investigation.
“They all have a right to act in self-defense if they reasonably believe they’re facing a threat of imminent death or bodily harm,” Mr. Witmer-Rich told the station.
Taco Bell released a statement on Wednesday saying its franchisee is “fully cooperating with the Cleveland Police Department in their investigation,” and that employees were offered counseling.
The identities of the three attempted-robbery victims — ages 19, 19 and 23 — was not revealed and no arrests have been made, the station reported.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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