Hartford, Connecticut police arrested a fast food restaurant manager who allegedly shot and killed a cook during an argument over negative Yelp reviews.
James Goolsby, 28, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with the murder of fry cook Norris Jackson following an argument at Bonchon Chicken in Manchester, CT on Saturday. He is being held on $1 million bail.
Goolsby’s girlfriend, Leanne Robitaille, 23, who also worked at the restaurant, turned herself in to police on Tuesday and was charged with hindering prosecution. Her bail was set at $100,000.
Jackson, 36, was shot four times and one of the bullets severed an artery in his neck, according to a coroner’s report obtained by the Hartford Courant.
The father-of-7 was pronounced dead at Hartford Hospital on Sunday.
An employee told police Goolsby shot Jackson during a heated argument over a Yelp review just after the restaurant opened at about 11:45 a.m. Saturday at the Plaza at Buckland Hills.
According to The Courant, reviews of the restaurant were mixed, with many positive reviews and several negative reviews, including 2 on Friday.
According to the warrant, the employee said he heard Jackson yell, “Yo, do that sh-t again!” and when he looked over, he saw Goolsby’s arm extended and “something black in his hand.” The witness said he heard several popping sounds, then saw Jackson stagger and collapse.
After the shooting, Goolsby and Robitaille fled in her 2007 Mazda 3. On the run for several days, the couple eventually turned up at Goolsby’s stepfather’s house in East Hartford, police said. The stepfather said Goolsby told him he had shot a co-worker who was always disrespecting him and his girlfriend, according to the warrant.
Goolsby also told his brother that he had shot a co-worker “because the dude got in his face,” police told The Courant. Goolsby was crying and said he had messed up his life, his brother told police.
Goolsby was arrested Tuesday at a Wethersfield Avenue home, police said.
Jackson’s mother, Barbara Turner, told The Courant her son started working at the restaurant over the summer.
In Facebook posts, Jackson, pictured above with Turner, expressed his frustration with his job as fry cook at Bonchon Chicken restaurant.
A photo dated Nov. 15 shows him raising a middle finger while working at a grill and deep fryer station.
“They f-ck with me at work,” he wrote in the caption.
In a Facebook post dated Dec. 20, he complained about working “6 straight days all 12hr shifts”.
Turner said Jackson had been living with several of his children, his girlfriend and her three children in East Hartford, but he recently moved back to the city.
While Jackson was on life support at Hartford Hospital, Turner said she allowed surgeons to harvest his organs for life-saving transplants.
On Tuesday, she wrote in a Facebook post that Jackson’s right kidney was donated to a 49-year-old man.
“He’s making a difference in somebody’s life — my son lives on in other people,” Turner wrote.
