It was about 9:15 p.m. on Saturday night when a Tallahassee restaurant patron felt “sheer terror” for the first time in his life.
He had stopped off at the bar of Island Seafood Restaurant at 1019 N. Monroe Street for a beer after work. A few families were eating with their kids. One mother held her baby.
The patron, who asked to remain anonymous, had just paid his tab when he heard a “pop, pop, pop” outside.
He said he heard at least 10 gunshots from what police would later say was a shootout outside the restaurant.
“Everyone hit the deck. Chairs were flipped over. Tables flipped over,” he told the Tallahassee Democrat.
Another person dining at the restaurant wrote on Facebook, “I thought it was firecrackers at first until I see everybody drop down to the ground.”
A couple bullets shattered a window. People screamed. After a few moments on the ground, people stampeded into the kitchen.
“Everyone just kind of followed each other,” he said. “It was a huge mass of people.”
Some hid in the walk-in freezer. Others pondered if they should go out the back exit, but were afraid of what may be waiting in the alley.
“It sounded like he ripped off a whole magazine,” he said.
A Tallahassee Police Department watch commander said the “shooting incident” was reported at 9:38 p.m. Officers responded to the scene and multiple shell casings were located in the parking lot.
“Several buildings and vehicles were hit, but no suspects remained,” he said.
Investigators reviewed video footage that showed “several people firing at each other.” No one was injured.
“I felt really lucky,” the patron told a reporter the morning after the shooting. “It was massive terror. The most terror I’ve ever experienced in my life. After it was done, I felt terribly bad for the women who were shaking and crying, grabbing onto their kids.”
