Employee Dies after Argument, while Another’s Family Searches for Answers

Can You Believe It?

Manhattan, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) – A late-night argument left one employee dead and another injured, officials said.

Elsewhere the family of another murdered employee are searching for answers, while the families of other employees wait for more work on what happened to their loved ones.

In Manhattan, a late-night argument outside a deli left one employee dead and another wounded, officials said. The argument that started in Sal’s Deli and Grocery then spilled out into the street, and erupted into gunfire at the intersection of Avenue b and East 13th Street around 11:38 p.m. Officials said the gunfire struck two men in the abdomen.

Abdul Saleh and an unidentified man were struck. Both men were taken to the hospital, where Saleh later died. Saleh was an employee of Sal’s, witnesses said.

Emmad El-Hassil, 31, who works at another deli a block away, said Saleh was his cousin and that he worked at the family-owned deli.

“Guys that live in the neighborhood, they came into my store and they said, ‘Abdul got shot!’ ‘Abdul got shot!’” Emmad El-Hassil, 31, Saleh’s cousin said. El-Hassil said Saleh had just gotten back from a trip to Yemen where he’d been visiting family. He had just returned to work the day of the shooting.

As of Sunday evening, there were no arrests, and the other employee was in stable condition, officials said.

In Spanish Lake, Mo., the family of an employee killed over onion rings is calling for the death penalty for the suspect in her death.

Chauncia Meekins, 32, was shot and killed the night of April 8. She was working the drive-thru of a Steak and Shake, when an argument took place, and the driver shot through the window. The gun shots killed Meekins and injured her co-worker.

Tamela Washington, Meekins mother, said the argument was over onion rings.

“It’s never that serious to take a person’s life over fast food,” Washington said.

St. Louis County prosecutors said 20-year-old Jada Bell was charged with six felonies in the case, including first degree murder and armed criminal action.

“I saw my daughter as she’s getting ready to be laid to rest,” Chauncia’s father, Chauncey Lovell Meekins told news agencies. “She looked beautiful and happy. I didn’t know why. But now I know why she is happy because her crime has been solved.”

The family is calling for Bell to face the death penalty in this case.

“As a family, as a whole, we will be pushing for the death penalty, not for revenge, but to set an example because we need to stop this type of senseless violence out here; it doesn’t make sense,” Anthony Willhite, Chauncia Meekins’ cousin, said during a vigil for Meekins.

Willhite says the violence could happen anywhere, to anyone.

“Chauncia just so happened to be in harm’s way; this could have been anyone’s child, at the convenience store buying potato chips, at the gas station taking too long at the pump,” he said.

Investigators say the shooting was captured on Steak ‘n Shake’s surveillance video. According to court records, the video shows Bell going through the drive through and getting into an argument with the employees over her food order. Investigators said Bell threw her drink at Meekins, who threw it back at her. Bell  allegedly fired several shots at Meekins and another employee.

Bell is being held on a $1 million, cash-only, no 10% bond. She will appear in court for a bond hearing next Tuesday.

Elsewhere, other employees have been shot while working

In Columbia, Md., police said an employee was shot inside a gas station on April 17.

Police were called to the Shell station on Cradlerock Way for a reported shooting. When they arrived, they found an adult male victim, the employee. The employee was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center with serious injuries.

Officials said the employee was shot during an attempted robbery.

In the Friendship Heights section of Washington, D.C., two Metro employees are dead after a dispute that turned into a homicide-suicide, officials said.

The Metro employees were found shot and killed in Northwest D.C., police said. The shooting happened on 44th Street in front of the MWATA Western Bus Division depot. Medics pronounced them dead at the scene. D.C. police said 44-year-old Terrell Cross shot 42-year-old Robert Stokes before shooting himself.

Stokes’ wife told News 4 the shooting happened after a personal dispute between Stokes and his coworker. WMATA General Manager Randy Clarke confirmed that the two men were Metro employees, but their deaths did not pose any threat to the public or the system.

"I'd like to ask for a moment of silence to recognize the loss our team is feeling this morning," Clarke said at the meeting.

The union that represents WMATA employees said the union lost two good men.

"Local 689 lost members of our Union family overnight. Our prayers are with the members' loved ones and families," a spokesperson for the union said. The union said it was offering grief counselling for any member who needs it.

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